If you want to develop an effective autism training, ask autistic students to help you

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

Gillespie-Lynch, K., Bisson, J. B., Saade, S., Obeid, R., Kofner, B., Harrison, A. J., Daou, N., Tricarico, N., Santos, J. D., Pinkava, W., & Jordan, A. (2021). If you want to develop an effective autism training, ask autistic students to help you. Autism, 26(5), 1082-1094. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613211041006

Publication date: 2 Sep 2021 Added to AutiHub: 18 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
11
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 11 (18.2%)

Abstract

Autistic university students face stigma. Online trainings have been used to improve explicit autism stigma (social distance) and knowledge among university students in different countries. However, autistic university students have not typically been involved in developing such trainings. We developed two autism trainings: a participatory training (developed in collaboration with autistic university students) and a non-participatory training. We evaluated these trainings with undergraduate students in the United States and Lebanon. A pilot study revealed improvements in implicit biases (measured with an Implicit Association Test) and knowledge following both trainings, but no clear benefit of the participatory training in particular. Feedback revealed that participants found the Implicit Association Test tedious, suggesting that it might have dampened effects by boring participants. To increase engagement, we removed the Implicit Association Test and conducted a cross-university training comparison which revealed evidence that the participatory training was more effective than the non-participatory training at improving autism knowledge, explicit stigma, and attitudes toward inclusion. Autistic co-authors coded participant feedback and identified three key themes to guide future training development and adaptation: an (inter)personal element, accessibility, and clarity of information. These studies provide empirical support for the oft-cited, but rarely directed tested, benefits of involving autistic people in research about autism. Lay abstract Autistic university students are often left out because people do not understand autism. We wanted to help people understand autism. Most autism trainings are not made by autistic people. Autistic people know what it is like to be autistic. So autistic people may be the best teachers when it comes to teaching about autism. Autistic students and non-autistic professors made an autism training. The students made videos for the training. They also helped make questions to see what people learned from the trainings. Professors who are not autistic made a training on their own. Students in New York City tried out the trainings. After they answered questions, they did either the training the autistic students helped make or the training made by only professors. Then, they answered questions again. We learned from the students how to make our trainings better. Then, students from two universities in the United States and one university in Lebanon did our trainings and questions. Both trainings made hidden feelings about autism better. The training autistic students helped make taught students more than the training professors made on their own. The autistic-led training also helped students accept autism more. These studies show that autistic students can make autism research and trainings better. At the end of this article, autistic students share their ideas for how to make autism trainings even better in the future.

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: 20 Sep 2026 01:01.

Cited references
78
With a DOI
62
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
13
7 / 78 (9.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
11 / 78 (14.1%)
References with detected author names
72 / 78 (92.3%)
Without detected author names
6
Without a structured title
9
Without a stable identifier
13
References with raw author names still to review
4
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
303
From DOI or external metadata
303
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
7
103 / 303 (34.0%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 200 / 303 (66.0%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
10 / 303 (3.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 10 / 103 (9.7%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 8 / 240 (3.3%).
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