Janse van Rensburg Margaret, Liang Bridget
Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Autism Adulthood. 2025 Apr 3;7(2):141-154. doi: 10.1089/aut.2022.0079. eCollection 2025 Apr.
As the fastest growing cohort of disabled student populations, autistic students are often let down by inherently ableist institutions of higher education (HE). Traditionally, institutions of HE have sought to support autistic students through an individualized approach, placing the responsibility on the autistic student to seek out and advocate for academic and nonacademic support. However, there remain opportunities for the broader community to foster autistic individual and community well-being. This conceptual analysis evaluates the current environment and approaches in HE for supporting autistic academic success and well-being and describes a community framework based on a collective combined effort that invites individual autistic students and autistic community flourishing. It contributes an alternative approach to supporting autistic students, making autistic individual and community well-being the responsibility of peers, support staff, instructors and faculty, and the institution, identifying a need to restructure institutions into ones that work to promote autistic culture and provide autonomous supports and accommodations.
Right now, there are a lot of different ways in which institutions of Higher Education (HE; i.e., colleges and universities) do and do not support autistic students.
There are opportunities for peers, instructors and faculty, support staff, and institutions to get involved in supporting autistic students.
However, institutions of HE do not have a clear framework to make the wellbeing of autistic students a community responsibility.
The purpose of this article is to evaluate the current ways in which institutions of HE support the academic success and wellbeing of autistic students and to describe a framework for a collective effort to promote individual autistic student and community flourishing.
Our evaluation demonstrates that non-acceptance of autism, stigma, and oppression may impact an autistic students' experiences, making the transition to HE, academic success, and wellbeing more difficult.
Traditional approaches to supporting autistic students, including formal academic supports, informal academic supports, and non-academic supports, may not be accessible to all autistic students.
Our framework uses a critical understanding of learning and autism, valuing autistic experience.
The goal is to support autistic academic success and wellbeing and to reduce the need for autistic students to mask, change, or seek out support to 'fit in' to HE.
The framework centers individual autistic students and the autistic community, placing the responsibility of academic success and student wellbeing on the larger HE collective.
Peers, instructors and faculty, support staff, and institutions are shown as having influence on the academic success and wellbeing of autistic students.
These key players can promote autistic culture by being open to autistic students' decisions around disclosure; applying a Universal Design for Learning (UDL); recognizing neurodiversity as an important diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative; offering and engaging in neurodiversity trainings; developing and enhancing disability cultural centers; and featuring autistic culture in the academe; autistic culture can be promoted.
Furthermore, they can support autistic student agency by honouring autistic students' autonomy, building comprehensive and connected services; normalizing academic accommodations; and offering non-academic supports.
The authors hope that this article helps to create a system-wide change through a collective, combined effort to promote individual autistic student and autistic community flourishing in HE.
作为残疾学生群体中增长最快的一部分，自闭症学生常常被本质上存在能力歧视的高等教育机构所辜负。传统上，高等教育机构试图通过个性化方法来支持自闭症学生，将寻找并争取学术和非学术支持的责任置于自闭症学生自身。然而，更广泛的社区仍有机会促进自闭症个体及社区的福祉。本概念分析评估了高等教育中支持自闭症学生学术成就和福祉的当前环境与方法，并描述了一个基于集体共同努力的社区框架，该框架有助于自闭症个体学生和自闭症社区的蓬勃发展。它提出了一种支持自闭症学生的替代方法，将自闭症个体及社区的福祉视为同伴、支持人员、教师以及机构的责任，指出需要将机构重组为致力于促进自闭症文化并提供自主支持与便利条件的机构。
目前，高等教育机构（即学院和大学）支持或不支持自闭症学生的方式多种多样。
同伴、教师、支持人员和机构都有机会参与支持自闭症学生。
然而，高等教育机构没有一个明确的框架将自闭症学生的福祉视为社区的责任。
本文的目的是评估高等教育机构支持自闭症学生学术成就和福祉的当前方式，并描述一个集体努力促进自闭症个体学生和社区蓬勃发展的框架。
我们的评估表明，对自闭症的不接纳、污名化和压迫可能会影响自闭症学生的经历，使他们向高等教育的过渡、学术成就和福祉变得更加困难。
支持自闭症学生的传统方法，包括正式学术支持、非正式学术支持和非学术支持，并非所有自闭症学生都能获得。
我们的框架运用对学习和自闭症的批判性理解，重视自闭症体验。
目标是支持自闭症学生的学术成就和福祉，减少自闭症学生为“融入”高等教育而进行伪装、改变或寻求支持的需求。
该框架以自闭症个体学生和自闭症社区为中心，将学术成就和学生福祉的责任置于更广泛的高等教育集体身上。
同伴、教师、支持人员和机构被表明对自闭症学生的学术成就和福祉有影响。
这些关键参与者可以通过对自闭症学生关于披露的决定持开放态度；应用通用设计学习（UDL）；将神经多样性视为重要的多样性、公平性和包容性倡议；提供并参与神经多样性培训；发展和加强残疾文化中心；以及在学术界展现自闭症文化来促进自闭症文化；自闭症文化能够得到推广。
此外，他们可以通过尊重自闭症学生的自主性、建立全面且相互关联的服务；使学术便利条件常态化；以及提供非学术支持来支持自闭症学生的自主性。
作者希望本文有助于通过集体共同努力在全系统创造变革，以促进高等教育中自闭症个体学生和自闭症社区的蓬勃发展。
