Reducing Barriers in Neurodiverse Schools—schAUT: A Program to Identify and Reduce Barriers for Autistic and All Students

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Hümpfer-Gerhards, L., Schwager, S., Benecke, M., Fuhrmann, S., Kunert, J., & Knigge, M. (2026). Reducing Barriers in Neurodiverse Schools—schAUT: A Program to Identify and Reduce Barriers for Autistic and All Students. Behavioral Sciences, 16(6), 949. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16060949

Publication date: 9 Jun 2026 Added to AutiHub: 23 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
6
Autistic authors reported by the publication
Number not specified
  1. Lukas Hümpfer-Gerhards
  2. Sabine Schwager
  3. Mark Benecke *
  1. Stephanie Fuhrmann *
  2. Jana Kunert
  3. Michel Knigge

Abstract

This paper presents results from the project schAUT, a participatory research project initiated by Humboldt University Berlin, Goethe University Frankfurt a.M. and White Unicorn e.V., funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; FKZ: 01NV2104). It aimed to identify and reduce barriers to learning and participation in mainstream schools, with a particular focus on autistic students. This paper introduces a questionnaire and a program to support School Organizational Development (SOD), aiming to provide equitable and accessible learning environments grounded in international frameworks on inclusive education. This study combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine the subjective experiences of barriers. We present data obtained through a multi-phase development and validation phase. The results show that neurodivergent participants generally experienced higher subjective barriers, although we observed that barriers affect neurotypical students as well, highlighting a subjective nature. We argue that these findings support neurodiversity as a relevant concept, especially in educational contexts. This supports Larrauri et al.’s Big-Tent approach to neurodiversity, emphasizing individual variability while acknowledging structural biases towards neurotypical norms in educational environments. The study highlights the value of multiperspective approaches in (participatory) research and SOD, to develop strategies for an inclusive educational environment through neurodiversity-informed decision processes and enable equitable learning environments for all students.

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: 24 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
51
With a DOI
27
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
24
5 / 51 (9.8%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
22 / 51 (43.1%)
References with detected author names
29 / 51 (56.9%)
Without detected author names
22
Without a structured title
22
Without a stable identifier
24
References with raw author names still to review
22
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
87
From DOI or external metadata
87
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
52
22 / 87 (25.3%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 65 / 87 (74.7%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
9 / 87 (10.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 9 / 22 (40.9%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 9 / 86 (10.5%).
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