The use of everyday and assistive technology in the lives of older autistic adults

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

Zheng, L., Foley, K. R., Grove, R., Elley, K., Brown, S. A., Leong, D. j., Li, X., Pellicano, E., Trollor, J., & Hwang, Y. I. (2021). The use of everyday and assistive technology in the lives of older autistic adults. Autism, 26(6), 1550-1562. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613211058519

Publication date: 29 Nov 2021 Added to AutiHub: 22 Aug 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
10
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 10 (10.0%)

Abstract

Assistive technologies have the potential to provide accessible support to people with varying needs and abilities, including older autistic adults. However, there is currently limited knowledge about how older autistic adults use technology in their daily lives, whether it is sufficient to meet their needs and whether they experience any barriers to technology use. To address these questions, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 autistic adults aged over 50 years. Using thematic analysis, we identified two major themes related to how older autistic adults use technology: ‘Helping to Manage the External Environment’ and ‘Increasing Everyday Accessibility and Convenience’. Overall, participants reported experiencing a number of challenges associated with performing everyday activities and while technology was able to offer some assistance, a number of gaps still remain in meeting the support needs of this population. Based on these findings, we offer some guidelines and recommendations for technology use with this population to guide future research and practice. Lay abstract Technology has the potential to help people with various support needs live more autonomous lives. This includes autistic individuals. In this article, we look at how older autistic adults use technology in their daily lives. Past research examining technology use and autism has mainly focused on helping children to learn new skills. To date, very little research has been conducted looking at how to create and design technology for use by older autistic adults. This is concerning because older autistic adults will likely have supports needs that match or exceed those of similarly aged non-autistic individuals. In this article, we spoke to autistic adults over 50 years about their daily experiences and how they use technology. We identified some important ways that older autistic adults use technology in their daily lives, as well as a number of support needs and barriers to technology use. Based on the findings, we were able to provide some guidelines and recommendations for technology developers and service providers to assist with designing, creating and using technology with older autistic adults.

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: 12 Sep 2026 18:15.

Cited references
68
With a DOI
63
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
5
5 / 68 (7.4%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 68 (5.9%)
References with detected author names
67 / 68 (98.5%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
4
Without a stable identifier
5
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
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
280
From DOI or external metadata
280
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
1
47 / 280 (16.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 233 / 280 (83.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
6 / 280 (2.1%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 6 / 47 (12.8%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 6 / 269 (2.2%).
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