The (in)visibilisation of ‘ethnicity’,‘race’ and ‘culture’ as constructs of difference in Global North autism disparities research

Research evidences significant ethnic and racial disparities in the identification and diagnosis of autism in Global North contexts, sparking interest in how cultural factors contribute to these disparities. Despite this interest, however, the concept of ‘culture’ remains underdeveloped in autism research, where ethnic, racial, and other social categories are also often conflated. This has led to selective and limited explanations of how ‘culture’ influences the observed disparities. This commentary article discusses how autism research on the observed disparities in Global North contexts tends to hyper-visibilise ethnicity and race as proxies for ‘differences’, perpetuating cultural essentialist explanations for inequalities in diagnostics and social services. At the same time, research exploring autism as a constructed and negotiated ‘culture’ and ‘identity’ nearly renders ethnicity and race invisible. Consequently, little is known about how autism is initially shaped in intersection with ethnicity and race, how we collectively envision autistic individuals, and the extent to which our collective images are ethnically or racially diverse. This article advocates for a broader definition of culture in autism scholarship, emphasising how autism disparities also result from how autism is constructed and negotiated through processes of meaning-making.