Older Autistic People, Access and Experiences of Services, and the Factors That Affect This

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

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Hersh, M., Mery, P., & Dawson, M. (2024). Older Autistic People, Access and Experiences of Services, and the Factors That Affect This. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 21(11), 1535. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21111535

Publication date: 19 Nov 2024 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
3 / 3 (100.0%)
  1. Marion Hersh *
  2. Panda Mery *
  3. Michael Dawson *

Abstract

This paper presents new empirical data obtained from interviews and focus groups on older (50 and over) autistic people's experiences of accessing a variety of services. The involvement of older autistic people and giving voice to their experiences was central to all aspects of the research process. This work makes a significant contribution to the scarce literature on older autistic people. In particular, it discusses the factors that act as barriers and enablers to the access to and productive use of services, the strategies used by participants to manage and improve their experiences, and the success of these strategies. It shows older autistic people as autonomous adults and active protagonists in their own lives, taking action to overcome the barriers they experience to accessing services on the same terms as everyone else, but that lack of understanding and support from service providers and the general public can undermine their strategies. Finally, this work provides a series of recommendations for service providers to improve (older) autistic people's service access and experiences.

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: 2 Oct 2026 08:04.

Cited references
47
With a DOI
33
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
12
11 / 47 (23.4%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
11 / 47 (23.4%)
References with detected author names
36 / 47 (76.6%)
Without detected author names
11
Without a structured title
11
Without a stable identifier
12
References with raw author names still to review
11
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
176
From DOI or external metadata
176
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
20
109 / 176 (61.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 67 / 176 (38.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
31 / 176 (17.6%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 31 / 109 (28.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 19 / 138 (13.8%).
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