Portland State Magazine Spring 2015

SPRING 2015 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 23 even that description falls short—autism is ever changing and doesn’t fit neatly on a continuum. “It’s a movable target,” Raymaker says. She talks in the measured, skeptical tones of an experienced researcher. Yet she also mentions there were years when she didn’t speak, and sometimes will tell an interviewer that a seemingly routine question “doesn’t compute.” “How well I function depends on how well my environ- ment supports my needs.” Autistic doctoral students aren’t as rare one might think, she adds. “There aren’t tons of us, but we do exist. It’s growing.” Her interest in disability research is tactical as well as clinical. “I’m interested in how the process of science can be used as a vehicle for political change.” THE KEY product of Raymaker and Nicolaidis’s research to date is an online “toolkit” aimed at making it easier for autistic adults to navigate the sometimes Byzantine world of health care. It gives clear instructions and recommendations aimed not just at patients but at health care providers as well. “It’s a great website,” says Tobi Burch Rates, executive director of the Autism Society of Oregon. “It’s going to be extremely helpful for getting adults basic health care.” Nicolaidis and Raymaker are now doing follow-up research to monitor the website’s effectiveness. But they’re also starting to tackle some other thorny topics in the wide-open field of disability science—top among them: pregnancy. “There’s an assumption that women with intellectual disabilities don’t get pregnant, or shouldn’t,” Nicolaidis says. “And that’s not the case. They need the resources and tools and information to make good decisions.” Raymaker, who plans to stay at PSU as a researcher, wants to take the same principles learned from their health care project and apply it to the workplace. It’s another area where autistic people and others with disabilities face severe roadblocks, she says. “We have to push people out of the margins and into the center,” Raymaker says. “We’re not going to hide behind closed doors.”  Harry Esteve is a staff member in the PSU Office of University Communications. Social Work professor Christina Nicolaidis (left) and doctoral student Dora Raymaker are helping autistic adults—a personal and professional endeavor. Photo by Kelly James.