Making meaning material: A textile politics of autistic interests

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Long, R. E. M. (2024). Making meaning material: A textile politics of autistic interests. Journal of Arts & Communities, 15(1), 9-25. https://doi.org/10.1386/jaac_00051_1

Publication date: 1 Apr 2024 Added to AutiHub: 9 Aug 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)
  1. Rebecca-Eli M. Long *

Abstract

Disability offers important considerations for participatory crafting projects that seek to foreground diverse forms of knowledge-making. As a case study in ‘disability craft’, this ethnographic knitting project uses collaborative knitting pattern design to explore autistic adults’ interests in the context of the autistic self-advocacy movement in the United States. Colloquially known as ‘special interests’, these interests challenge ableist stereotypes about what it means to be autistic. Crucially, this project was informed by the autistic author’s own special interest of knitting, making special interests both the object and method of research. Knitting is used to explore what counts as meaningful knowledge and who can create it. Through themes of identity, well-being and communication, special interests are shown to be intensely meaningful. The final knitted objects from this project materialize knowledge about how autistic people navigate the world and show how craft can support autistic activism against epistemic injustice.

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 17:07.

Cited references
43
With a DOI
29
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
13
9 / 43 (20.9%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
11 / 43 (25.6%)
References with detected author names
32 / 43 (74.4%)
Without detected author names
11
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
10
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
60
From DOI or external metadata
60
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
2
25 / 60 (41.7%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 35 / 60 (58.3%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
15 / 60 (25.0%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 15 / 25 (60.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 13 / 56 (23.2%).
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