Methodological insights from the inside: developing autistic-friendly interviewing in a group interview space

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

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Hedlund, Å., Wester, M. E., Edenvik, P., Ingard, C., Isakson, K., Sabel, L. K., Unéus, D., & Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, H. (2026). Methodological insights from the inside: developing autistic-friendly interviewing in a group interview space. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 16, 1659580-1659580. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1659580

Journal or book title
Frontiers in Psychiatry
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Volume
16
Pages
1659580-1659580
Article number
1659580
Publication date: 27 Jan 2026 Added to AutiHub: 4 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
8
Publication authors identified as autistic
8 / 8 (100.0%)
  1. Åsa Hedlund *
  2. Maria Eriksson Wester *
  3. Pia Edenvik *
  4. Cecilia Ingard *
  1. Kajsa Isakson *
  2. Lisa Kron Sabel *
  3. Danielle Unéus *
  4. Hannah Bertilsdotter Rosqvist *

Abstract

Background: A neurodiversity-informed approach recognizes the perspectives and experiences of autistic people from an insider perspective, yet little attention has been given to adapting qualitative methods to account for the impact of cognition, sociality, and communication style of both interviewers and participants. The aim of this paper was to contribute to the development of autistic-friendly interviewing in a group interview space. Methods: The paper is a collective reflexive pilot study, exploring experiences of autistic interviewer and autistic participants in group interviews. The method followed five steps, from deciding what type of interview questions to use to test them in the group interviews. An autistic interviewer conducted three group interviews, each with two to three autistic participants. Interviews and analyses were conducted in Swedish, and the data were then translated into English by the authors. Results: The study identified key insights around four areas: participants' mixed views on the interview guide, the need to accommodate autistic processing styles, the importance of recognizing autistic forms of sociality, and the significance of conducting interviews within an autistic-friendly space that fosters comfort and understanding. Conclusion: The paper outlines step by step the procedure of conducting group interviews with autistic people. We illustrate ways to capture the possibilities of autistic-friendly interviewing by working with-rather than against-autistic cognition, sociality, and communication styles in interviews with autistic people.

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 17:07.

Cited references
42
With a DOI
33
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
9
15 / 42 (35.7%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 42 (9.5%)
References with detected author names
38 / 42 (90.5%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
4
Without a stable identifier
9
References with raw author names still to review
0
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
111
From DOI or external metadata
111
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
62 / 111 (55.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 49 / 111 (44.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
37 / 111 (33.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 37 / 62 (59.7%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 32 / 104 (30.8%).
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