Unmet need, epistemic injustice and early death: how social policy for Autistic adults in England and Wales fails to slay Beveridge’s Five Giants

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Grant, A., Williams, G., Williams, K., & Woods, R. (2023). Unmet need, epistemic injustice and early death: how social policy for Autistic adults in England and Wales fails to slay Beveridge’s Five Giants. In Social Policy Review 35 (pp. 239-257). Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447369219.ch012

Publication date: 30 Jun 2023 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Book chapter Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
4 / 4 (100.0%)
  1. Aimee Grant *
  2. Gemma Williams *
  3. Kathryn Williams *
  4. Richard Woods *

Abstract

Around 2% of people are Autistic, but to date the impact of being Autistic on social policy receipt has not yet been considered. We, a group of Autistic academics, consider epistemic injustice, where Autistic input is excluded from the policy making process, to be a core part of Autistic disablement. We consider the impact of this using a modern iteration of Beveridge’s Five Giants: health (disease), education (ignorance), employment (idleness), poverty (want), and housing (squalor). Starting with lack of access to diagnosis and healthcare for co-occurring conditions, we identify policies that fail to account for known Autistic needs in each policy area. These failures have a cumulative impact throughout the life course; lack of accommodations within education leads to less likelihood of securing accessible employment, and greater reliance on government financial support and housing assistance. Furthermore, this impact will be increased for Autistic people who are multiply marginalised due to intersectionality. We propose changes to the policy-making process to ensure that it reflects Autistic needs and realities, allowing for the emancipation of Autistic people. We theorise that if this were to happen, the Autistic suicide rate, which is nine times that of non-Autistic people, would decline.

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 07:50.

Cited references
29
With a DOI
29
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
0
7 / 29 (24.1%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 29 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
29 / 29 (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
73
From DOI or external metadata
73
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
34 / 73 (46.6%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 39 / 73 (53.4%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
11 / 73 (15.1%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 11 / 34 (32.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 10 / 71 (14.1%).
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