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Introduction: Adults living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can experience many factors that may impact their everyday lives. Striving for optimal health and enduring a healthy lifestyle comes with the ability to access appropriate healthcare services, yet adults with ASD have unmet healthcare needs. The barriers and enablers of healthcare access for adults with ASD remain unclear. We will conduct a systematic review to explore what is currently known about healthcare access for adults with ASD, this will determine the level and appropriateness of access to healthcare services to better support the lives of adults with ASD. Method and analysis: The systematic review will report on all studies that include quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods designs that consider healthcare access for adults with ASD. We will search 5 databases: EBSCOhost, Scopus, PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) will be used to assess quality of articles and the Cochrane RoB 2.0 Tool will be used to assess for bias. Clarifying the evidence in this area will be important for future research directions when developing and piloting health interventions for researchers and healthcare clinicians in the field. Ethics and dissemination: There are no human participants, data, or tissue being directly studied for the purposes of the review; therefore, ethics approval and consent to participate is not applicable. Registration and Status: PROSPERO 2018 CRD42018116093.

Autistic adults have higher health needs compared to most, yet they continue to experience barriers to accessing appropriate healthcare. Presently, no qualitative research exists exploring these barriers which impact overall physical and mental health. We conducted a qualitative analysis in Victoria (Australia) of the perceived experiences of healthcare access for autistic adults ( n = 9) and primary caregivers of autistic adults ( n = 7). Specifically, a three-staged phenomenological approach was applied involving: (i) a communicative checklist, (ii) a health status survey and (iii) face-to-face interviews. Elements such as support, responsibilities and protective factors exhibited by caregivers, may impact healthcare access for autistic adults. Results indicate the need for further research exploring interdependent factors that impact healthcare access by caregivers, so evidence-based interventions can be developed to support caregivers in the future.