Exploring the potential for social networking among people with autism: challenging dominant
ideas of "friendship"
Sammanfattning
Within dominant approaches to autism and relationships, people with autism are assumed to be
either unable to form relationships or are in need for educational interventions to be better equipped
at managing relationships in a social world dominated by non-autistic people (neurotypicals). In this
paper, we argue that broader constructions of friendship are needed in order to best account for the
desire and abilities of high-functioning people with autism to have satisfying friendships and that the
engagement with online social networking may provide a useful tool in achieving this.