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Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are completing high school with reasonable expectations for postsecondary success. College educators are likely ill prepared to provide appropriate support for these students. Based on personal interviews with a diverse group of students with autism, this study (a) amplifies these students' voices, (b) describes tensions between their public and private identities, (c) outlines the academic, social, emotional, self-advocacy, and communication challenges they face in college, and (d) proposes both general principles and specific practices that could be leveraged to facilitate postsecondary success for students with autism.
A large and fast-growing population of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairment in social communication and the presence of restricted interests and/or repetitive behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)-is completing high school with expectations for continuing on to postsecondary education. The nascent body of literature on individuals with ASD in postsecondary education, however, is discouraging. Only 34.7% of individuals with ASD attempt college within 6 years of leaving high school (Shattuck et al., 2012). Once in college, students with ASD face daunting social, emotional, independent-living, selfadvocacy, and communication challenges both inside and outside of the classroom (Adreon & Durocher, 2007; Gobbo & Shmulsky, 2014). Moreover, critical holes in the empirical literature presently make it difficult to develop large-scale, evidence-based interventions for college students with ASD.
This study begins to fill in these knowledge gaps by (a) defining salient issues affecting college success for individuals with autism and (b) describing institutional initiatives with potential to promote college success for students with autism. The primary research questions for this study were: (a) How do students with autism make sense of their experiences with higher education? and (b) How do these students respond to potential barriers to postsecondary success? With inperson interviews this study amplifies the voice of college students with autism and highlights opportunities to improve their college experiences.
There is considerable disagreement about the appropriate use of language associated with autism (for an overview, see Brown, 2011), with members of some organizations preferring "identity-first" language (e.g., autistic student) whereas many advocates (including the American Psychological Association) promote "person-first" language (e.g., individual with autism). Recent changes to the formal diagnostic criteria for autism, conflicting theories regarding its causes, and rapidly...