Coproduction with Autistic Adults: Reflections from the Authentistic Research Collective

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

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Stark, E., Ali, D., Ayre, A., Schneider, N., Parveen, S., Marais, K., Holmes, N., & Pender, R. (2020). Coproduction with Autistic Adults: Reflections from the Authentistic Research Collective. Autism in Adulthood, 3(2), 195-203. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2020.0050

Publication date: 11 Dec 2020 Added to AutiHub: 14 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
8
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 8 (25.0%)
  1. Eloise Stark
  2. Dorota Ali *
  3. Annalise Ayre *
  4. Naomi Schneider
  1. Sophia Parveen
  2. Keith Marais
  3. Nick Holmes
  4. Richard Pender

Abstract

This article explores coproduction in relation to autistic people. We reflect on the coproduction process with autistic adults from the Authentistic Research Collective at University College London. We aimed to support the autistic population's mental health needs by coproducing a document on adapting psychological therapy, and by developing a set of reflective guidelines to guide and encourage future coproduction initiatives between autistic and nonautistic team members. We reflect upon six elements that are of potential importance for future coproduction projects with autistic adults: (1) the meaning of coproduction; (2) ground rules and a traffic light system; (3) environmental adaptations; (4) digital communication tools; (5) encouraging authenticity; and (6) supporting autistic strengths. We conclude by discussing future research avenues into optimizing coproduction with autistic people, and how such research may influence both practice and policy. Lay summary Why is coproduction important? Coproduction means creating things jointly with others. Ideally, autistic people should be involved in research that is about them so that their thoughts and opinions are included. Coproduction allows this to happen. What is the purpose of this article? There is little advice for how autistic and nonautistic people can work together to coproduce useful research. This article hopes to encourage discussion by sharing our reflections on how we used coproduction in our project. What did we do? Our group was made up of autistic and nonautistic people. One of our goals was to gain experience in using coproduction. We created this article containing our reflections—what we found worked well, and what we felt could be done differently in the future. What did we learn? We learnt the importance of five key areas: (1) group rules, and a “traffic light” system to help group members show how they like to communicate; (2) adapting the environment to suit people's needs; (3) inclusion of digital communication tools; (4) encouraging group members to feel they are authentic (be fully themselves); and (5) supporting autistic strengths. We hope that the discussion of these themes will be helpful for future coproduction projects.

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: 14 Sep 2026 14:22.

Cited references
38
With a DOI
26
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
11
8 / 38 (21.1%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
2 / 38 (5.3%)
References with detected author names
36 / 38 (94.7%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
8
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
123
From DOI or external metadata
123
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
4
75 / 123 (61.0%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 48 / 123 (39.0%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
22 / 123 (17.9%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 22 / 75 (29.3%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 20 / 109 (18.3%).
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