The development and utilization of a diversity advisory board in an intervention to support social skill development for autistic transition-aged youth

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. two authors of this publication are identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

G Williams, E. D., J Smith, M., Mitchell, J., B Tucker, T., Sung, C., Sherwood, K., Dababnah, S., Magaña, S., Lovelace, T., Kattari, S. K., Olsen, D., Elkins, J., Humm, L., Steacy, C., Riddle, E., & Liggett, C. (2025). The development and utilization of a diversity advisory board in an intervention to support social skill development for autistic transition-aged youth. Autism, 29(8), 2016-2029. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613251330847

Publication date: 15 Apr 2025 Added to AutiHub: 13 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
16
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 16 (12.5%)

Abstract

Recent discourse has identified significant issues surrounding the lack of diversity in autism-related research. However, recent efforts have called for the regular use of diversity advisory boards (DAB) in autism-related research to improve the inclusivity of underrepresented and marginalized groups included in the growing autism scholarship. This article outlines the development and implementation of a DAB to support the design and evaluation of an innovative intervention, WorkChat: A Virtual Workday. Specifically, WorkChat focuses on improving knowledge and practicing conversational skills with virtual customers, coworkers, and supervisors to support workplace interactions for autistic transition-age youth. Here, we share guidelines for developing, utilizing, and maintaining a DAB, as well as recommended practices and future implications for implementing DABs in autism services research while using the WorkChat DAB as a case study. The goal is to support the further use of DABs as a means of significantly improving the inclusion of underrepresented and marginalized identities including racial, gender, and sexual minorities, and individuals with disabilities in autism services research. Lay Abstract Autism research often does not include enough people with different identities such as different races, genders, and sexualities. Sometimes, support for autistic individuals does not help everyone equally. They often work better for white, straight autistic males. This article will talk about how we are trying to make autism research more diverse. We will share how we are using a group of diverse advisors to help with research. We will also talk about how to use these advisor groups in the future for autism research.

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: 13 Sep 2026 08:41.

Cited references
62
With a DOI
57
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
5
4 / 62 (6.5%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
3 / 62 (4.8%)
References with detected author names
60 / 62 (96.8%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
3
Without a stable identifier
3
References with raw author names still to review
2
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
339
From DOI or external metadata
339
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
2
88 / 339 (26.0%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 251 / 339 (74.0%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
9 / 339 (2.7%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 9 / 88 (10.2%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 9 / 303 (3.0%).
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