Author: Rational Demand Avoidance

Richard Woods is a leading author on Demand Avoidance Phenomena (Pathological Demand Avoidance) and an editor of the autistic-led good practice journal, Autism Policy and Practice. He completed his BSc Technological Physics at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in 2016. After his diagnosis in 2012, he was pivotal to the running of the Autistic-led society at NTU until 2014. Since 2013, Mr Woods has been working in schools in his local area, undertaking roles such as a mentor. Currently, he is an independent scholar pursuing an Interest Based Account of autism (monotropism theory). Mr Woods’ is involved with Participatory Autism Research Collective. His research is situated in Critical Autism Studies discipline, challenging pathologising discourses. Specifically, his scholarship includes the key article “Redefining Critical Autism Studies: a more inclusive interpretation”. Presently, his research areas are deconstructing Demand Avoidance Phenomena to provide alternative explanations to its dominant discourse whilst advocating the inclusion of autistic persons’ perspectives in the autism literature. Recently, he has delivered training on DAP to postgraduate level and spoken internationally on the topic. When not advancing autistic persons’ rights, Mr Woods can be found immersing himself in cyber-goth style music and socialising with his friends. Ironically, he resides in Nottingham, the source of Rational Demand Avoidance. You can reach Mr Woods at richardwoodsautism@gmail.com and on twitter, @Richard_Autism. Editor: Autism Policy and Practice: https://www.openaccessautism.org/index.php/app/announcement/view/3 ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8292-632X Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard_Woods10 Google Scholar Citations: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uc1IjOUAAAAJ Blog, Rational Demand Avoidance: https://rationaldemandavoidance.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/Richard_Autism