Is Autism a Disability? The Perception of Autistic Adults in Quebec

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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Normand, C. L., Cloutier, I., Ovalle, G., Normandeau, G., Poulin, M. H., Turgeon, S., & Fecteau, S. M. (2025). Is Autism a Disability? The Perception of Autistic Adults in Quebec. Neurodiversity, 3. https://doi.org/10.1177/27546330251328438

Publication date: 16 Apr 2025 Added to AutiHub: 24 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
7
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 7 (14.3%)
  1. Claude L Normand
  2. Isia Cloutier
  3. Gabriela Ovalle *
  4. Gabriel Normandeau
  1. Marie-Hélène Poulin
  2. Stéphanie Turgeon
  3. Stéphanie-M Fecteau

Abstract

Autism has long been viewed as a disorder characterized by persistent deficits in need of a cure. This medical or pathologizing perspective has been confronted by a social model of disability, which places the burden of the challenges faced by the autistic community on society's failure to accommodate neurological differences. A more nuanced, interactionist model suggests that disability arises from a poor fit between personal characteristics and environmental demands. As part of a mixed-method study on terminology pertaining to autism and related concepts, 14 French-speaking autistic adults from Quebec participated in semistructured interviews. They were asked their definitions of autism, the concept of disability, and whether autism is a disability. Qualitative analyses revealed that respondents were prone to view autism through the lens of a social model of disability. Autism was defined as a neurological difference rather than a mental illness. Although many conceptualized disability as a personal limitation, they were reluctant to label their diagnosis of autism as a disability. The difficulties they face stem from “disabling situations” due to environments and social norms tailored to a neurotypical majority of people. This aligns with the neurodiversity movement, which advocates social change while also recognizing the support needs of autistic individuals.

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 11:55.

Cited references
49
With a DOI
44
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
5
13 / 49 (26.5%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
5 / 49 (10.2%)
References with detected author names
44 / 49 (89.8%)
Without detected author names
5
Without a structured title
5
Without a stable identifier
5
References with raw author names still to review
5
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
146
From DOI or external metadata
146
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
7
90 / 146 (61.6%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 56 / 146 (38.4%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
19 / 146 (13.0%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 19 / 90 (21.1%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 15 / 126 (11.9%).
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