When Disability Is Defined by Behavior, Outcome Measures Should Not Promote “Passing”

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Ne'eman, A. (2021). When Disability Is Defined by Behavior, Outcome Measures Should Not Promote “Passing”. AMA Journal of Ethics, 23(7), E569-575. https://doi.org/10.1001/amajethics.2021.569

Publication date: 1 Jul 2021 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)
  1. Ari Ne'eman *

Abstract

When disability is defined by behavior, researchers and clinicians struggle to identify appropriate measures to assess clinical progress. Some choose the reduction or elimination of diagnostic traits, implicitly defining typical appearance as the goal of service provision. Such an approach often interferes with more meaningful, person-centered goals; causes harm to people with disabilities; and is unnecessary for dealing with traits that are intrinsically harmful or personally distressing, such as self-injury. Disability stakeholders should reevaluate outcome measures that seek to eliminate disability-related traits that are stigmatized but not harmful. Using autism and the emergent neurodiversity movement as a case study, this article explores ethical challenges in selecting outcome measures in behaviorally defined disability diagnoses.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 08:04.

Cited references
35
With a DOI
33
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
0
9 / 35 (25.7%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 35 (2.9%)
References with detected author names
34 / 35 (97.1%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
0
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
204
From DOI or external metadata
204
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
102 / 204 (50.0%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 102 / 204 (50.0%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
23 / 204 (11.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 23 / 102 (22.5%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 13 / 162 (8.0%).
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