What the literature says
Literature Review
Sandra Law
Identifying Gaps in the Literature
The areas of focus for this literature review will be 1) underdiagnosis of autistic women 2) the experience of autistic students transitioning to postsecondary education 3) the kinds of supports provided to autistic students, specifically 4) autistic student perceptions of supports and accommodations that are provided to them 5) faculty perceptions of students with disabilities
Underdiagnosis of Autistic Women
Women with autism often receive their diagnoses much later in life than their male counterparts. Some women are diagnosed at the same time as their children, others struggle through life receiving a number of misdiagnoses until finally receiving a correct diagnosis of autism (Beckwith-Fellows, 2017; CBC, 2018). Women who have autism may excel at the primary and secondary school levels but decide to forgo pursuing postsecondary education because of their own low levels of confidence in their abilities (Kim, 2015; Stark, 2019). Women’s skill at masking their symptoms, essentially hiding their struggles from peers, friends, teachers, parents and professionals (McCann, 2017) may be one reason for their later diagnoses. Receiving a diagnosis later in life means that women lose out on a number of supports that are provided to individuals with an autism diagnosis prior to the age of 18 (Lehnhardt et al., 2016; Milner et al., 2019; Stark, 2019). Anderson, Carter, & Stephenson (2018) argue that the needs of women in postsecondary education may be greater than those of men. In addition, their needs may not be well-understood and are generally not being met, given the limited amount of research on sex-based differences in autism.
Experiences of Autistic Students in Postsecondary Education
More and more autistic students are pursuing postsecondary education (Widman & Lopez-Reyna, 2020; Gurbuz et al., 2019). The number of autistic postsecondary students is likely underestimated as many of these students fail to register with disability services (Ames et al., 2016; Cai & Richdale, 2016). Even autistic students who are well-prepared academically may struggle to succeed in postsecondary education (Baldwin et al., Ma et al, 2016). Despite the increased participation of autistic students in postsecondary education there is a shortage of programs that specifically address their needs (Chown and Beavan, 2012). A common theme amongst autistic student accounts of their postsecondary experience is that they feel isolated and lonely and encounter barriers communicating with other students (Ariel & Naseef, 2006; Francis, Duke, Fujita, & Sutton, 2019). This contributes to lower program completion rates for autistic individuals (Adreon & Derocher, 2007; Gotham et al., 2015).
Supports Provided to Autistic Postsecondary Students
There is a lack of clarity about the specific needs of autistic students in postsecondary education. Students who received some preparation (e.g., through postsecondary programs) in transitioning to postsecondary education likely have improved outcomes (i.e., increased program completion rates) (Greenberg, 2020). One of the difficulties inherent in providing supports to autistic postsecondary students is that they are a heterogeneous group. As one autism researcher has put it ‘if you have met one person with autism, you have met one person with autism’. Most of the accommodations provided to autistic students (e.g., separate testing space) were developed to serve the needs of other types of disabled students (Anderson, Stephenson, Carter, & Carllno, 2019). It has been suggested that most of the supports offered to autistic students are a poor match to their actual needs given that they are focused on academic supports when the needs of autistic people may be in non-academic areas (Gelbar et al., 2015). Even when postsecondary institutions do offer specialized supports to autistic students, students may not take advantage of them for a variety of reasons, such as,
- not being aware that supports exist,
- inability to understand that they need help, and
- stress response that impairs ability to request support.
Elias & White, 2018; Gaffney, 2020; Knott & Taylor, 2014)
Autistic Students Perceptions of Supports and Accommodations
A multi-year, single institution study conducted by Accardo et al. (2019) on student satisfaction with accommodations and supports provided by a university indicated that students felt misunderstood by university faculty/staff, which in and of itself, was a barrier. Students also identified accommodations that they felt would have helped them succeed, such as: quiet locations for exams, a notetaker for lectures, extended time for assessments, academic coaching, housing accommodations, tutoring, and counseling (Accardo et al., 2019).
Faculty Perceptions of Students with Disabilities
Different educators have different degrees of willingness to support accommodation requests (Easterbrook et al., 2015). They may also have different levels of awareness of the range of disabilities their students may have and understanding of their legal responsibilities towards students (Muller, 2006). Faculty members are more likely to support students with disabilities when they have been given some training about the general needs of students with disabilities (Austin & Pena, 2017). It may be that faculty and staff are simply unaware of autistic students in their courses, as many of these students choose not to disclose their status (Kelly & Joseph, 2012). Although there are pedagogical strategies that have proven to be effective with autistic students there is little evidence that they are known or used by faculty members (Austin & Pena, 2017).