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. 2016 Oct;36(4):195-203.
doi: 10.1177/1539449216666062. Epub 2016 Sep 19.

Latino Families' Experiences With Autism Services: Disparities, Capabilities, and Occupational Justice

Amber M Angell  1   2 , Gelya Frank  1 , Olga Solomon  1
Affiliations

Latino Families' Experiences With Autism Services: Disparities, Capabilities, and Occupational Justice

Amber M Angell et al. OTJR (Thorofare N J). 2016 Oct.

Abstract

This article examines six cases of publicly funded Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy for Latino children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to contribute to thinking about occupational justice. In this ethnographic study of six Latino families of children with ASD in Los Angeles County, all families were offered ABA for their children, but five families experienced occupational challenges leading them to insist on modifications of ABA or to opt out of the service. We consider in each case (a) how the families' experiences can be understood occupationally, (b) how ABA affected the functionings and capabilities of the children and their families, and (c) how the parents' accounts relate to occupational justice. Applying the capabilities approach can help operationalize the concept of occupational justice as a tool to evaluate social policy across cases.

Keywords: autism; disparity; occupational justice; services.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

References

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