An autistic-led project, Autism Supports for Comfort, Care, and Connection, has revealed the everyday and creative ways autistic adults used objects, services, and creatures to support their wellbeing.
Conducted by research fellow, Dr Megan Rose and Professor Deborah Lupton from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society at UNSW, the study interviewed 12 autistic Australians about the supports they rely on for entertainment, social connection, special interests, burnout recovery, sensory challenges, and overall wellbeing.
Participants also imagined their ideal new support system tailored to their needs.
To visually represent these experiences, autistic graphic illustrator Sarah Firth was commissioned to create unique ‘portraits’ of each participant. Using anonymized interview transcripts, it depicted the challenges, coping strategies, and special interests of each individual without ever seeing or meeting them.
The resulting booklet combined these portraits with lay-language participant narratives, offering a powerful and personal look at how autistic people engage with non-human supports in their daily lives.
“Importantly, this is an autistic-led project with a strengths-based approach. Megan and I wanted to focus on identifying not only the challenges faced by autistic people, but also the amazingly inventive ways they made their lives more comfortable and joyful,” Professor Lupton said.
Ilistration Credit: Sarah Firth