[UPDATED] CHAPTER 6: HOME ASSESSMENT PART 3 – PEER REVIEW

Finds belonging: Connecting with the community as the final step in a robust, culturally rooted self-assessment.

This chapter confronts the history of autism’s narrow and exclusionary definitions—rooted in white, male, affluent children—and how that legacy produced the “lost generation” of undiagnosed Autistic adults. Angela explains how this erasure left many of us gaslit by families, dismissed by professionals, and forced into masking while battling impostor syndrome. She names the damage done by groups like Autism Speaks and the HSP/“neurospicy” circuits, which water down or distort Autistic identity, and then shifts toward reclamation: real peer validation inside Autistic culture.

The final step of the home assessment is peer review—inviting other Autistics to look at your analysis, compare notes, and give feedback. Unlike a doctor’s gatekeeping, this is community validation: Autistic elders or peers reviewing your scores, history, and reflections. Angela outlines how to do it—organize your files, approach Autistic-led spaces (#ActuallyAutistic on Reddit, Discord, Bluesky, etc.), and listen for the unmistakable “Autistic accent” of shared culture. Peer review can be formal, like paying an Autistic psychologist for consulting, or casual, like recognizing another Autistic kid by their fascination with Tesco trucks. The point isn’t to replicate the medical model—it’s to ground self-identification in community recognition.

By completing this step, you’ve essentially done what academia does: self-study, cross-checking, and peer review. Whether you stop here or keep going to a professional assessment, you now have a robust, culturally rooted, and personally meaningful way to affirm your Autistic identity.