In Canada, social work—both the profession and the academic discipline—has given inadequate attention to individuals living with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities. This is true regardless of whether the social work role is in a clinical capacity, community-based programs, academic research and educational endeavours, or an advocacy role or supporting self-advocacy for basic needs and rights to services and supports. Many people with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their supporters, value community involvement and integration, quality of life, and access to a wide range of services, so it is likely that social workers will encounter these clients in their careers. Consequently, the onus is on the social work profession to attend more fully and carefully to preparing students, practitioners, and researchers.
This peer-reviewed volume provides a range of perspectives, practices, and ideas relative to social work’s engagements with individuals living with autism, intellectual disabilities, and developmental disabilities. Contributors include social work practitioners, academic and community-based researchers, educators, activists, and self-advocates. Reflecting different ways of theorizing, speaking about, and working with people with autism, intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities, it explores both tensions and possibilities for social work practice, research, education, advocacy, and policy development that better meet their needs and desires for their lives.

Kevin Stoddart, PhD, is founding director of The Redpath Centre and an adjunct professor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. Since the early 1990s, his primary clinical interest has been supporting children, youth, and adults diagnosed with autism and Asperger Syndrome and the co-existing social and mental health problems that affect them. He continues to be an active clinician at The Redpath Centre in Toronto.

Kevin P. Stoddart's profile page

Ann Fudge Schormans, PhD, is a professor emeritus in the School of Social Work, McMaster University. Her practice history with people labelled/with intellectual disabilities in the Community Living and Child Welfare sectors combines with ongoing community-based work to inform her teaching, scholarship, and research. She draws on critical disability studies and employs (and explores the potential and challenges of) inclusive, co-researcher methodologies and knowledge production, with arts-based methods.

Ann Fudge Schormans' profile page

Social Work Practice in Autism and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, edited by Kevin P. Stoddart and Ann Fudge Schormans, is a landmark text that profoundly enriches social work scholarship, especially in the area of disability. By blending personal narratives, historical and political analysis, and professional insights, it offers a nuanced exploration of autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and social work practice to support people with these identities. The inclusion of voices with lived experience as co-authors and self-authors of knowledge about their lives gives authenticity, respect, and depth to this important volume. Each chapter provides a rigorous, theoretically rich discussion of relevant issues while providing practical guidance for reflective and empowerment-based practices that will create better possibilities for individuals and families who encounter social work practitioners. This is a must-read for any social work practitioner aiming to advance opportunities and inclusion for people with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Charmaine C. Williams, Dean & Professor Sandra Rotman Chair in Social Work, University of Toronto