Socio-spatial repercussions of canonical cinematic images on the educational trajectories of university students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

This study aimed to describe and interpret, from the perceptions of students at the State University of Southwest Bahia (UESB), the socio-spatial repercussions of crystallized cinematic images on the life-formation of people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). To achieve this, we adopted qualitative approaches grounded in Phenomenology and Hermeneutics, as well as the Empirical-Intervention-Based Phenomenological Method (MFE-I). Data were produced through participant observation in a focus group, phenomenological interviews with seven university students diagnosed with ASD, and film analysis of three feature-length films. The empirical field was UESB, Vitória da Conquista campus, Bahia, Brazil. The findings revealed crystallized cinematic images associated with people with ASD, reducing the plurality of meanings surrounding autism by portraying autistic individuals primarily as either gifted or incapable. Such reductions tend to affect the social relations of autistic people and directly influence collective understandings of the spectrum. However, the participants also identified possibilities for deconstructing these images, highlighting the importance of care in cinematic productions about ASD through the inclusion and participation of autistic people and the expansion of gender, ethnic-racial, and age diversity in representations of autism.