Autistic Agency

The capacity of autistic individuals to make choices, express preferences, direct their own lives, and participate meaningfully in decisions that affect them. Research on autistic agency in technology contexts has found that autistic children and adults are often positioned as passive recipients of interventions designed and controlled by parents, clinicians, and researchers rather than active agents in their own support. Technology can either support autistic agency (by providing communication tools, self-regulation resources, and self-advocacy platforms) or undermine it (through surveillance, behavioral control, and externally imposed goals). Centering autistic agency is a core principle of neurodiversity-aligned technology design.