Good intentions are not enough: Autistic perspectives on structural ableism within the walls of our classrooms

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. At least four authors are autistic; the publication does not identify all autistic authors by name.

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Nadwodny, N., VanHook, B., Esham, B., Larsen, L. N., Levinson, S., & Eisenhower, A. (2026). Good intentions are not enough: Autistic perspectives on structural ableism within the walls of our classrooms. Autism, 30(5), 1176-1190. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613261426691

Publication date: 10 Mar 2026 Added to AutiHub: 18 Oct 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
6
Autistic authors reported by the publication
At least 4
  1. Nicole Nadwodny
  2. Ben VanHook
  3. Brady Esham
  1. Luna N Larsen
  2. Sarah Levinson
  3. Abbey Eisenhower

Abstract

This study aimed to examine how structural ableism affects autistic learners by collecting first-person perspectives of current and former autistic students about how their school experiences shaped their ability to self-advocate. In addition, the study aimed to further highlight autistic perspectives by incorporating a community-participatory research design, which consisted of a primarily autistic research team. Participants consisted of 19 autistic adolescents and adults who represented a wide array of intersectional sociodemographic identities. Participants were engaged in a 90-min semi-structured interview to discuss their school experiences. Interviews were analyzed qualitatively and inductively through a critical constructivist approach to grounded theory. Data analysis highlighted many structural barriers to autistic self-advocacy for our participants. These barriers were described within six distinct domains which emerged as themes in our analysis: erasure, conformity, isolation, oppression, hidden expectations, and authority. This qualitative, community-participatory research study exposes the degree to which systems-level ableism exists within US K–12 systems. Specifically, our participants emphasized ableism that went beyond the individual or interpersonal level. We conclude with a series of recommendations on how to combat these manifestations of ableism in schools. Lay summary The goal of this study was to ask current and former autistic students about their school experiences and self-advocacy. Self-advocacy means being able to ask for what you need and to make your own choices. Nineteen autistic students were interviewed about self-advocacy at school. These autistic students told the research team that schools often made it hard for them to self-advocate. They also told the research team that schools were ableist, meaning that they did not respect the rights of disabled people. This study is important because it shows ways in which schools do not support autistic people and recommends ways for schools to treat autistic people better. This study is also important because the research team was mostly autistic. The expertise of autistic researchers on our team helped us create research that highlights autistic people’s voices.

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: 23 Oct 2026 07:46.

Cited references
57
With a DOI
45
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
12
9 / 57 (15.8%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 57 (7.0%)
References with detected author names
55 / 57 (96.5%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
4
Without a stable identifier
12
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
177
From DOI or external metadata
177
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
8
112 / 177 (63.3%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 65 / 177 (36.7%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
61 / 177 (34.5%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 61 / 112 (54.5%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 53 / 161 (32.9%).
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