When Distress Is Misread: Autistic Credibility and the Politics of Interpretation

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

About the autistic author marker

Metadata sources used for this reference

OpenAlex Crossref Manual
Learn more about the sources used

Callander, K. A. (2026). When Distress Is Misread: Autistic Credibility and the Politics of Interpretation. Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.9707/2833-1508.1274

Publication date: 8 Jun 2026 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)
  1. Katrine Alma Callander *

Abstract

Misinformation about autism is often understood as a problem of inaccurate facts, stereotypes or public misunderstanding. This essay argues that misinformation also operates through dominant interpretive frameworks that shape how autistic experiences are recognised, understood and believed. Drawing on participatory narrative research with autistic women, the essay examines how institutions frequently reinterpret experiences of harm as personality dysfunction, emotional instability or individual deficit rather than recognising them as relational and socially produced. Autistic forms of communication and storytelling are often treated as signs of unreliability, shaping whose accounts are considered credible within clinical and institutional contexts. By reframing these patterns of misinterpretation as structural misinformation, the essay shows how credibility becomes unevenly distributed while also highlighting how autistic women resist these distortions by reclaiming authority over their own experiences.

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: 23 Oct 2026 01:00.

Cited references
8
With a DOI
8
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
0
2 / 8 (25.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 8 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
8 / 8 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
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
19
From DOI or external metadata
19
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
9 / 19 (47.4%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 10 / 19 (52.6%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
2 / 19 (10.5%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 2 / 9 (22.2%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 2 / 19 (10.5%).
  2. Laura S. Brown (2017). Contributions of feminist and critical psychologies to trauma psychology. In APA handbook of trauma psychology: Foundations in knowledge (Vol. 1). (pp. 501-526). American Psychological Association.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.1037/0000019-025 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2607510708
    Manual
  3. Fabienne Cazalis , Elisabeth Reyes , Séverine Leduc , David Gourion (2022). Evidence That Nine Autistic Women Out of Ten Have Been Victims of Sexual Violence. Front. Behav. Neurosci., 16, 852203. Frontiers Media SA.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.852203 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4225009262
    Manual
  5. Miranda Fricker (2007). Epistemic Injustice . Oxford University PressOxford.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198237907.001.0001 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4252633962
    Manual
  6. Nirit Haruvi-Lamdan , Danny Horesh , Ofer Golan (2018). PTSD and autism spectrum disorder: Co-morbidity, gaps in research, and potential shared mechanisms. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 10(3), 290-299. American Psychological Association (APA).
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1037/tra0000298 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2738419163
    Manual
  7. Connor Kerns , Craig J. Newschaffer , Steven J. Berkowitz (2015). Traumatic Childhood Events and Autism Spectrum Disorder . Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(11), 3475-3486. Springer Science and Business Media LLC.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1007/s10803-015-2392-y OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2081445626
    Manual
  8. Jade Eloise Norris , Laura Crane , Katie Maras (2020). Interviewing autistic adults: Adaptations to support recall in police, employment, and healthcare interviews . Autism, 24(6), 1506-1520. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/1362361320909174 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3005198043
    Manual