“For a Long Time Our Voices have been Hushed”: Using Student Perspectives to Develop Supports for Neurodiverse College Students

Abstract

Although the challenges that autistic students face adapting to college are often pronounced, they are similar to the challenges that students with other disabilities face (e.g., difficulties with social interaction, self-advocacy, and executive functioning). However, extant evaluations of services for autistic college students are very limited despite an emerging literature examining supports for college students with a range of other disabilities. Given that many autistic students do not self-identify as autistic in college, and consequently might avoid autism-specific services, autistic students might benefit from services that are designed to support a broad range of neurodiverse students, or services that are structured according to the principles of Universal Design. In order to develop such services, we assessed the self-reported needs of autistic college students and their peers with other disabilities. Guided by needs assessments and feedback from students, we developed and evaluated two semesters of mentor-led group programming for autistic college students and students with other disabilities. The first semester of the program focused on social skills; after receiving feedback from participants, the curriculum for the second semester focused on self-advocacy. Participation in social-skills groups was associated with decreased anxiety and autism symptoms. Participation in self-advocacy groups was associated with increased perceived social support from friends, academic self-efficacy, and more accurate definitions of self-advocacy. This research suggests that supports for neurodiverse college students should be developed with their input and should include opportunities to engage with diverse peers.

Designing a Summer Transition Program for Incoming and Current College Students on the Autism Spectrum: A Participatory Approach

“…While this study provides preliminary evidence in support of participatory transition programming for autistic students, there were limitations in the data collection and study design processes. With respect to data collection, the lack of verification of diagnosis using gold-standard diagnostic measures is a significant limitation of this study and of a number of prior studies with autistic college students (e.g., Schindler et al, 2015 ; Ames et al, 2016 ; Gillespie-Lynch et al, 2017a , b ; Hillier et al, 2018 ). Similar to prior interventions for college students (Gelbar et al, 2014 ; Pugliese and White, 2014 ; Schindler et al, 2015 ), the number of participants was small, participants varied substantially in their educational level, and the sample lacked racial and ethnic diversity (primarily in STP1).…”

“…The program curriculum for the first summer transition program was adapted from our ongoing, peer-mentorship program for autistic college students and students with other disabilities (Gillespie-Lynch et al, 2017a , b ). Students in our mentorship program are invited to attend weekly individualized one-on-one and/or group mentorship sessions with a structured curriculum throughout the school year.…”

“…Although autistic self-advocates recommend that education to promote self-advocacy skills begin in childhood (Shore, 2004 ), self-advocacy interventions for autistic individuals remain scarce (Gillespie-Lynch et al, 2017a ). Perhaps partially because they have not learned the link between self-advocacy and receiving needed accommodations, approximately one third of students who were identified as autistic in high school do not disclose this information in college (Newman et al, 2011 ).…”

“…Even though prior research demonstrates a clear need for programming to help autistic college students transition into and succeed in college (Glennon, 2001 ; Adreon and Durocher, 2007 ; Hendricks and Wehman, 2009 ; Kapp et al, 2011 ; Pillay and Bhat, 2012 ; Gobbo and Shmulsky, 2014 ) and the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee ( 2013 ) identified transition programming for autistic adults as a priority, only a very small body of research has provided preliminary evidence that supports for incoming and current autistic college students are attractive to and/or beneficial for them (Pugliese and White, 2014 ; Schindler et al, 2015 ; Ames et al, 2016 ; Barnhill, 2016 ; White et al, 2016a , 2017 ; Gillespie-Lynch et al, 2017a , b ; Roberts and Birmingham, 2017 ; Hillier et al, 2018 ). As an early example of this type of work, Pugliese and White ( 2014 ) demonstrated the feasibility and acceptability of a cognitive-behavioral group-based problem solving skills intervention for five autistic college students.…”

“…The development of the transition program reported in the current paper was intended to advance participatory supports for this population beyond our existing program. As context, our mentorship program was developed by the last author of this report and is reported on elsewhere (Gillespie-Lynch et al, 2017a ). Participation in initial iterations of this program was associated with reduced self-reported anxiety and autism symptoms among 28 students with disabilities (12 of whom were autistic) and increased academic self-efficacy, self-advocacy knowledge, and perceived social support among 30 students (17 of whom were autistic; Gillespie-Lynch et al, 2017a ).…”