The OET Autism Framework represents a social justice response to the diagnostic disparities of misdiagnosis, underdiagnosis, and late diagnosis experienced by adolescent and adult autistic females. The theoretical intersection of optimal distinctiveness and empowerment theories and trauma-informed care incorporates lived experience narratives to produce an intersectional, antioppressive, and strengths-based approach to holistic therapeutic assessment to inform treatment choice. The author proposes core principles that are aligned with the theoretical underpinnings of the OET Autism Framework to guide practitioners in its clinical application to foster collaborative goal setting, treatment planning, and treatment choice with this population. Seminal and present-day autism scholarship is revisited to expose the impact of gender assumptions and biases that have perpetuated harm and informed treatment choice for adolescent and adult autistic females. Accentuating the ethical responsibilities of the social work profession, the author proposes future recommendations to invite critical analysis from autism scholars to explore the efficacy of the framework and clinical assessment tool identification.
Jennifer Stokes Williams (Sat,) studied this question.