The Autastic
The Autastic Framework is how we reclaim neurodivergent life on our terms. Grounded in lived experience, it shapes our communities and challenges organizations ready to do better.
It’s not a product to download. It’s not a series of buzzwords.
The Autastic Framework is a liberatory lens for reclaiming neurodivergent life.
The Autastic Framework is NOT a checklist.
It IS:
- An approach that shapes all of Autastic—from community spaces to client work.
- Flexible, reflective, trauma-aware, and rooted in the real lives of neurodivergent people,
- Built from years of navigating internal experience, community insight, and ableist systems,
- A reflection-based approach that helps people and organizations move beyond performative inclusion toward something more honest and sustainable,
- Aligned with disability justice and design justice practices—recognizing that inclusion without power-sharing reinforces systemic harm,
- Informed by research that centers autistic perspectives and examines how systems shape our lives, and
- Grounded in practice—from messaging and media, to workplace culture, to peer support—with clarity, nuance, and respect.
Guiding Principles
The Autastic Framework Is All In On:
Real Representation
Representation rooted in lived experience instead of stereotypes or tropes.
Affirming Communication
Language that respects, affirms, and reflects neurodivergent experience—without diminishing or distorting it.
Respectful Creative Choices
Visual and narrative elements that honor presence, not performance.
Ongoing Reflection
Internal work that deepens awareness, voice, and intention.
Culture Shifting in Practice
Practices that prioritize access, belonging, and sustainable inclusion.
Intentional Direction
Decisions shaped by integrity, interdependence, and long-term impact.
This Matters
Efforts to accept, represent, and include autistic people often flatten us to stereotypes, spectacle, or a single narrative.
The Autastic Framework exists to liberate us from that.
It centers real autistic lives as we live them: in all our variety, across cultures and throughout the spectrum.
Belonging means more than being included.
It means being celebrated for who we are.
🔔 Consulting rates are set to honor the preparation, lived expertise, and emotional labor involved in delivering this work.
Sliding scale is offered only to community-led or nonprofit groups. Sustainable pricing ensures I can continue doing this work with integrity and care.
Autastic Founder, Diane J. Wright
As creator of Autastic and its communities, Diane has facilitated countless conversations among thousands of adult-identified Autastic members and developed therapeutic group experiences that have transformed lives.
In 2024, Diane was named the first Ford School Hawkins Family Disability Policy Fellow at the Center for Racial Justice, University of Michigan in recognition of her upcoming manuscript centering adult-identified BIPOC life.
Photo Credits: Nick Sinnott, Sharon Pittaway, and Hiki App via Unsplash. Ezekixl via Pexels.