A collaborative case study of autistic and non-autistic capital shared within a circle of support

Circles of Support have become a common tool within personalized approaches as a means of enabling socially isolated individuals to make choices and participate within their communities. They have been used successfully with autistic individuals and older adults, but there is little research with the former and none to date with the latter. Through a collaborative account of our long-standing Circle, we use theories of social/cultural capital to critique the ways in which the operation of a Circle can disrupt or reinforce barriers. We argue that Circles of Support offer an important means of supporting autistic adults to remain in their local community as they age. Further, we introduce ‘autistic cultural capital’ as a conceptualisation of how embodied autistic knowledge can be valued and shared through Circles, shifting the discourse from what capital autistic individuals may <i>acquire from</i>, to what they may confer to an inclusive society.