Loud Hands: Autistic people, speaking, edited by Julia Bascom, is a compilation of essays by autistic people.

From the Foreword: “The autistic community needs to be heard, speaking in our own ways on our own terms about the items on our agenda, on an unprecedented scale, reaching a much broader audience than we ever have been able to before.”

There are articles contributed by several autistic authors whose work I have previously enjoyed (and shared here), and a few who I have looked up since reading this book.  The range of subjects covered is impressive, as are the references provided!  There are various histories (eg the development of the autistic community and its culture; the future and the past of autism advocacy), self-acceptance articles (including non-speaking, stimming, echolalia, assistive technology etc), explanations of “Loud Hands”, and the uses of language (dislike of “person first”, liberation from the pathology paradigm and embracing neurodiversity etc).