Examining online practices of an autism parent community in Turkey: goals, needs, and opportunities

Abstract

Autism is a complex, life-long condition that manifests itself in unique ways in each person. Due to the complexity of the condition along with not having efficient and immediate social support, parents with autistic children often seek for and rely upon the information generated by the community (parents, caregivers, autistics and experts) on online platforms. We look into what parents of autistic individuals discuss on an online platform in Turkey, how they practice autism online and why those practices are important or relevant. Our findings show how parents cope with understanding and defining autism, and how they seek for empowering each other, and managing the everyday collectively under a dominant medical discourse around autism in Turkish context. Based on our findings, we extend the existing knowledge on collective and alternative ways of re-defining autism as lived experience and introduce recommendations on how those strategies can be integrated to design.