Missing from the Narrative: A Seven Decade Scoping Review of the Inclusion of Black Autistic Women and Girls in Autism Research

The intersectional experiences of Black Autistic women and girls (BAWG) are missing from medical and educational research on autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Understanding the intersectional experiences of BAWG is important due to the rising prevalence of autism in Black children and girls (CDC, 2016) and the concurrent lack of availability of culturally relevant autism-related interventions (Maenner, 2020; West, 2016). Intersectionality is the study of the overlapping discrimination produced by systems of oppression (Collins, 2019; Crenshaw, 1989; 1991) and al-lows the researcher to simultaneously address race and disability in special education (Artiles, 2013). In this scoping review, the authors used the PRISMA-ScR checklist (Tricco et al., 2018) and Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) framework to investigate the degree to which autism-related research (ARR) has included the intersectional experiences of BAWG. Utilizing narrative synthesis, strengths and gaps across the current body of literature are identified in order to set new directions for intersectional ARR. Overall, the authors found that across a 77-year period, three studies foregrounded BAWG and none addressed intersectionality as measured through criteria advanced by García and Ortiz (2013). These results reveal the scholarly neglect BAWG face in ARR, dis-course, policy, and practice. A future agenda including research, practice, and policy priorities is identified and discussed.