Exploring Autistic Coping through Participatory Design

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Barros Pena, B., Vines, J., Van Driel, M., & Koteyko, N. (2025). Exploring Autistic Coping through Participatory Design. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 9(7), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1145/3757593

Publication date: 16 Oct 2025 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 4 (25.0%)

Abstract

Autistic adults find themselves embedded within digital environments that are largely designed by and for neurotypical people. These environments are often unsuitable and challenging for the neurodivergent. As a result, autistic people are exposed to high levels of stress when using digital technologies, and must invest extraordinary effort in coping with it. In this participatory design study, we partnered with 20 autistic adults to investigate how they handle the stress caused by social media use. Their ways of coping and their design work point at the most problematic aspects of the design of social media, and suggest alternative directions for these digital platforms. We conclude that participatory design grounded on autistic coping provides an opportunity for the neuro-diversification of technology design.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 17:07.

Cited references
71
With a DOI
63
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
7
8 / 71 (11.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 71 (5.6%)
References with detected author names
68 / 71 (95.8%)
Without detected author names
3
Without a structured title
4
Without a stable identifier
7
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
6
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
236
From DOI or external metadata
236
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
76 / 236 (32.2%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 160 / 236 (67.8%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
8 / 236 (3.4%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 8 / 76 (10.5%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 5 / 201 (2.5%).
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