Parity of participation for autistic students: Mapping provision across UK higher education institutions

Abstract

This paper systematically identifies, maps and evaluates specific types of provision for autistic students published on university websites at 120 institutions throughout the UK. Within these data we identify trends in relation to geographical region, university group, and the Teaching Excellence Framework rating. We employ Nancy Fraser’s theory of social justice to unpack the reasons that underlie the differentials in provision across UK higher education institutions. Findings identify eight categories of provision tailored specifically for autistic students from ‘supporting transition to university’ to ‘social groups’ and suggest that there are institutions across the UK with evidence of more developed provision. Our data show, however, that resources and provision are not distributed equitably, raising implications for autistic students’ parity of participation in higher education.

Canadian mapping of autism-specific supports for postsecondary students

“…Consistent with existing environmental scans on autism-specific supports (Nachman et al, 2021;Vincent et al, 2021), an instrumental case study approach was adopted whereby institutional websites were mined. The purpose of this search strategy was to emulate the process prospective autistic students or their caregivers might employ when researching postsecondary institutions.…”

“…Consistent with previous environmental scans (e.g., Vincent et al, 2021), a Boolean search strategy (Johnson & Kumar Gupta, 2012) was used to collect the data. Between March and June 2021, the following was entered into the search bar of the Google web browser for each of the publicly-funded postsecondary institutions: Site:[Institutions web address] "Autism" OR "Aspergers" OR "ASD" OR "ASC" OR "Support" OR "Provision."…”

“…Further, environmental scans show that many programs exist beyond what is currently reported in the academic literature. Two recent environmental scans have been conducted in the United States (Nachman et al, 2021;Viezel et al, 2020) and the United Kingdom (Vincent et al, 2021) identifying available programming and supports for autistic students within a geographic region. This approach allows for a comprehensive analysis of naturalistic data, and may provide a more accurate assessment of the amount and types of support available.…”

“…This approach allows for a comprehensive analysis of naturalistic data, and may provide a more accurate assessment of the amount and types of support available. US programs tend to make use of academic coaching or peer mentoring and provide social skills intervention and vocational support (Viezel et al, 2020), while support for transitioning to university and specialized tutoring were the most commonly identified supports in the UK (Vincent et al, 2021). Overall, there seems to be gaps in program availability for autistic individuals by geographic region and by institution type, with 4-year institutions have more programming available than 2-year institutions (Nachman et al, 2021;Viezel et al, 2020;Vincent et al, 2021).…”

Learning from the experts: Evaluating a participatory autism and universal design training for university educators

“…Indeed, autistic students have suggested that autism trainings for university teaching staff should forefront the experiences of autistic people (Sarrett, 2018; Scott & Sedgewick, 2021). Fraser (2000) asserted that institutional inequalities in status, which situate some people as “normative” and others as “deficient,” can only be overcome through equal representation of those who have been disempowered (Vincent et al, 2022). This suggests that attempts to reduce autism stigma that do not make space for autistic people to challenge misrepresentations of autism directly may inadvertently contribute to stigma by framing autistic people as less than “normal.”…”