Listening with Humility:Lessons Learned from a Dialogue with Scholars from Critical Autism Studies

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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Mathur, S. K., Tarbox, J., Chown, N., & Suckle, E. (2026). Listening with Humility:Lessons Learned from a Dialogue with Scholars from Critical Autism Studies. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 19(2), 718-731. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-025-01149-7

Publication date: 9 Jan 2026 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 4 (25.0%)
  1. Sneha Kohli Mathur
  2. Jonathan Tarbox
  3. Nicholas Chown *
  4. Elsa Suckle

Abstract

The field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) appears to be at an inflection point where we are experiencing substantial criticism from the autistic community. We as a field can choose to defend our field from the criticism or we can choose to listen and be responsive to it. Some early forays into discussing the implications of neurodiversity for ABA have been fruitful (Veneziano & Shea, 2023; Mathur et al., 2024) and it seems clear that the time for direct dialogue between ABA scientist practitioners and some of our greatest critics has come. Suckle et al. (2025) described one side of a recent dialogue between scholars of ABA and Critical Autism Studies (CAS), in which CAS scholars posed questions to ABA scholars and ABA scholars answered them. That article was explicitly composed for a disability studies audience and accordingly published in a disability studies journal. The current article describes the other side of that dialogue, in which ABA scholars posed questions to CAS scholars, who then provided their answers. The current article is explicitly written for the ABA researcher and practitioner audience. We may not feel entirely comfortable with some of the criticisms of ABA that come from CAS scholars but we believe that willingness to experience this discomfort is a critical prerequisite for our field to evolve. This article explores how our field can engage in cross-disciplinary collaboration and concludes with potential actionable steps that ABA researchers and practitioners can put into practice today.

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 13:57.

Cited references
50
With a DOI
38
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
12
9 / 50 (18.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
10 / 50 (20.0%)
References with detected author names
42 / 50 (84.0%)
Without detected author names
8
Without a structured title
10
Without a stable identifier
12
References with raw author names still to review
8
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
116
From DOI or external metadata
116
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
11
45 / 116 (38.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 71 / 116 (61.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
20 / 116 (17.2%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 20 / 45 (44.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 16 / 102 (15.7%).
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