Autistic High School Graduates’ Perspectives on Educational Supports

High school can present unique social and academic challenges for young people, especially for students with disabilities. Some autistic high school students have reported that they are dissatisfied with their school experiences, and that they don’t feel well supported by school professionals.  It is possible that school professionals could better meet the needs of autistic students if we had more information about how autistic high school students feel about their time in school and how it could be made better. It also might be helpful for future autistic high school students if they had information about navigating high school that autistic graduates considered to be important. The purpose of this project was to gather perspectives from autistic young adults who were either in high school or recently graduated, with the hope that we can use this information to design materials for school professionals and future autistic high school students that might improve their high school experience.

We created  an online survey that posed open ended questions about participants’ high school experience. We  advertised the survey nationwide through email listserves and Facebook.   

Most autistic young people who responded noted how family members, peers, and school professionals contributed positively to their high school experiences.  Specific ways that these groups contributed was by providing help, care, and support. When asked how these groups could have better supported them in high school, participants indicated that school professionals could tailor their instructional supports according to their specific needs, family members could be more involved and available, and peers could be more accepting and understanding of their differences.

Participants also discussed how their disability affected their high school experience in negative ways, causing them to feel different from non-autistic peers, making relationships and social communication difficult, and negatively impacting their learning. A majority of the participants indicated that they had experienced some form of bullying in high school.

We interpreted the results of this study to suggest that the experiences of autistic youth might be improved if families, peers and school professionals have more information about how they can be supportive to autistic youth. Teachers need more information about adapting instruction for their autistic students, families may need guidance on providing emotional support, and non-autistic students need to be encouraged to be accepting of their autistic classmates. Schools should also make systematic efforts to address bullying, specifically focused on the kinds of bullying that autistic students experience. It may also be helpful for autsitic high school students to learn about the positive aspects of autism, so that they are able to develop a positive autistic identity.