Why autism research needs diversity
Over the past few months, the MWAY team have been speaking to autistic young people and their parents as part of Stage 1 of the study. We’ve been doing this to try and understand why so many autistic young people experience anxiety and depression and what helps. We’ve spoken to nearly 50 people so far. We’re aware that to better understand autistic people’s lives we need to make sure we hear about the experiences of people from different backgrounds, including those who are often left out of autism research. In this post, MWAY team member Sarah reflects on her experience of seeking out diverse voices in the MWAY study. We’re also joined by Leon Allain, an autistic researcher on one of our sister studies, the Autism Transition to Adulthood (ATAG) project who offers his views on navigating diversity within autism research. Why is diversity important in autism research? Leon: ‘Around 1 in 100 people are autistic and come from a variety of backgrounds. However, in research this is not...