Love, Joy, and Autism Robots: A Metareview and Provocatype

Previous work has observed how Neurodivergence is often harmfully pathologized in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Human-Robot interaction (HRI) research. We conduct a review of autism robot reviews and find the dominant research direction is Autistic people's second to lowest (24 of 25) research priority: interventions and treatments purporting to 'help' neurodivergent individuals to conform to neurotypical social norms, become better behaved, improve social and emotional skills, and otherwise 'fix' us -- rarely prioritizing the internal experiences that might lead to such differences. Furthermore, a growing body of evidence indicates many of the most popular current approaches risk inflicting lasting trauma and damage on Autistic people. We draw on the principles and findings of the latest Autism research, Feminist HRI, and Robotics to imagine a role reversal, analyze the implications, then conclude with actionable guidance on Autistic-led scientific methods and research directions.