Lecturer brings fresh perspectives on autism to ASU's Lincoln Center

This November, the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University had the honor of hosting internationally recognized journalist and author Eric Garcia for the annual Lawrence J. and Virginia Devlin Bolmarcich Memorial Lecture. Garcia — whose talk was titled “How Bad Ideas about Autism Hurt Autistic People” — is the Washington Bureau chief and senior Washington correspondent at the Independent, and he is also a columnist for MSNBC.

Garcia’s book "We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation" is a critically acclaimed look into navigating society as a person with autism. Using his own perspective paired with accounts from people with autism across America, the book explores how these individuals navigate institutional and relational structures like education, mental health, careers and love. He aims to give the autistic community a platform to articulate their own needs, rather than having others speak for them, which he says has been the standard for far too long.

The Lincoln Center communications team sat down with Garcia before his visit to ask about his book, how things have changed since its publication in 2021, and the importance of storytelling.

Note: This interview has been edited lightly for length and/or clarity.

Question: It’s been a few years since "We’re Not Broken" was published. What did you learn, or what surprised you, about the process of writing this book?

Answer: A lot of things have surprised me. I think when I was first writing the book, I still was very much operating in the high-functioning versus low-functioning mindset for autistic people. I thought there were people who were high-functioning, and they didn't need as many supports or services. I think I was still operating from that mindset, and I think that what I didn't realize was just how I was almost underselling. I was almost selling autistic people with higher support needs short. When I started doing this, that really forced me to look at my own biases. Why did I think some people were high-functioning and low-functioning? ... People with “low support needs” ... their needs are no less important than anyone (else's).

I think the other one that surprised me the most ... was learning about the history of SSI, (or) Supplemental Security Income. And how — I touch on this a little bit in the book, but I didn't get to go all in — essentially, people can't get married if they are on Supplemental Security Income. And it's one of those programs that we just haven't updated. So those are some big ones.

Question: We recently held a reading group with ASU students and community members, and they really praised the conversational aspect of the book. Was that an intentional choice?

Answer: It was. If you ask me how I view myself, I view myself as a journalist, and more than that, I see myself as a newspaper journalist. I've been working for newspapers or news outlets since I was 21, since I was working for my college newspaper. So, I've been doing this for a while and the thing that I always thought — and I still see — is that a lot of portrayals around autism and discussions around autism, the subject and the viewpoint and the focal point are from the parents, or the loved ones, or the caregivers, or the teachers, and what I really wanted to do is change the locus. I wanted to give people the perspective and put them in the shoes of autistic people, because I think when you look at the world through the eyes of autistic people, that forces you to think about all of the obstacles around them.

As a person who is both a consumer of news, somebody who works in the news business, and somebody who observes the business of news, I really do think that one of the mistakes we do is we don't consider autistic people or people with disabilities as newsreaders or news consumers. And when you think about them as consumers of news, or consumers of words, or consumers of books, or readers as a whole, that changes how you write about them. Because if you are writing about them as people who are going to read this, that forces you to write about them in a more humane way. ... If I'm successful at one thing as a journalist, it's this mission to portray the humanity and the dignity of autistic people. ... I don't see myself as an advocate. I don't. But I do see myself as a storyteller.

And as a storyteller, I think that when you tell stories, it means it's impossible to ignore a group of people. Because once you know their stories, even if there are sometimes disputes about the actual minutiae of the facts, you can't ignore someone's narrative. Narratives are powerful. Narratives can move people. They can change people, and they can sometimes change the world.

Question: Specifically within a university setting and with the students here, what do you think is our role in helping to make sure that these voices are elevated?

Answer: There are multiple roles for universities. Universities are the places that not only educate people who will work with people with disabilities and autistic people, they are hopefully educating autistic people and people with disabilities. They should be more welcoming, both in terms of the research and in whom the students they're educating are.

I think all of those things are important. I think one of the most important things with universities is that featuring autistic voices can give an imprimatur of credibility, and that's one of the things that a lot of autistic people lack is credibility. A lot of them aren't able to go to college, a lot of them are poor, a lot of them struggle to get through college, have intellectual disabilities, but having them speak at a place like ASU gives them credibility. It allows them to make their voices heard and to be taken seriously. And I think that's one of the best things you can do.