Learning About Research: a course for autistic people

Learning About Research: A course for autistic people

This course was intended to educate autistic people who are not researchers about what research is like so that they can be:

• Informed Consumers of research.  This means having a better understanding of research that is reported in the media, academic journals, and elsewhere, so people can decide whether the research is important and relevant to them.
• Empowered Participants in research.  This means understanding their rights as a participant in a research study, and the responsibilities of the researchers conducting the study.
• Effective Collaborators in research.  This means having confidence, knowledge, and skills to work with researchers as an equal and empowered partner.

The course was not intended to prepare people for postgraduate study, or a research career.  You can download an outline of the course timetable here.

This course is now completed.

We wanted autistic community members to:

• have the skills to be able to judge if research is relevant for them.
• know their rights as research participants.
• be able to feel confident collaborating in research.

We want researchers to be more competent in collaborating with autistic people, too.  We have chosen to start with autistic people.  See Sue’s twitter thread for more information here.

Jackie Ryan is an autistic PhD student from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, whose research interest is self-determination for autistic people and enhancing self-determination through participatory autism research.  She is also mum to a young adult son on the spectrum. Collaborative research can ensure that the research is relevant to the autistic community and improves quality of life.