Recommended by Emma Smith.

Recommended by Christina Gunther.

This study used a survey and focus groups to identify perspectives and priorities of students, staff and faculty at one university. Four priorities emerged from this work including expanding mental health supports; providing training and professional development for faculty around neurodiversity and universal design for learning; centering neurodiversity in DEI initiatives; and expanding neurodiversity supports. The methods and outcomes of this study could be very useful to readers as both a place to start interventions on their campus and collecting perspectives from stakeholders on their campus. Recommended by Anne E Marshall.

This article outlines common strengths and challenges that autistic students tend to have in higher education and offers ideas for how universities and instructors can develop neurodiversity-inclusive practices. The article uses universal design principles to make concrete suggestions to create accessible classrooms for autistic students. Recommended by Jasmine Hill Evans.

Recommended by Jasmine Hill Evans and Emma Smith.

Authors start by defining pedagogy, andragogy, and heutagogy. This is moving from content repetition, to adult centered, to student centered teaching strategies. They interview faculty to identify how they mix these approaches to create neuro affirming class experiences for neurodivergent learners. Putting these concepts in front of a classroom of adult learners and playing with possibilities could be really powerful. Recommended by Kieran Higgins.

Goldberg first gives the definition of neurodivergent as a social movement that looks to normalize the differences in human neurocognitive differences in a society. Goldberg then explores the different interpretations of neurodivergence, looking at a scientific approach suggesting that having differences in cognitive processing could offer an induvial advantage and maintained variation amongst the population. Some like this take however, others feel that normalization is doing more to hurt than help as society looks to be more inclusive it begins to ignore the illnesses and difficulties that individual face with neurodiversity. Throughout the rest of the article, he goes over the various ways that neurodivergence could have evolved in humans and how in the modern-day neurodivergent behaviors manifest pointing out that is if often a mixture of both genetics and environment mixed with the complicated evolutionary scaffolding of the human brain. Recommended by Erin Kenney.

This article is a conceptual article. Its focus is on the appropriate role of compassion by higher educators in various levels of responsibility for neurodiverse students. It points to a wise compassion that considers anxiety and distress and looks to UDL for strategies for all learners. Recommended by Jeni Dulek, Christina Gunther, Kieran Higgins, and Tara Ronda.

Recommended by Corinne Woodfine.

Recommended by Kimberly Dickman.

Recommended by Tara Ronda.

This editorial brings up the issue of women on the autism spectrum often being under-recognized. Several studies worldwide regarding sex and gender differences impact females with autism being diagnosed late or not at all. Recommended by Pamela Terrell.

This article provides a thought-provoking perspective such that while autistic individuals have trouble communicating and understanding social cues of non-autistic individuals, the problem goes both ways. Non-autistic people have trouble communicating and understanding social cues of autistic individuals. The double empathy problem suggests that all need to bridge communication gaps and work to understand communication differences rather than putting the issue on autistic individuals to assimilate to non-autistic styles. Recommended by Pamela Terrell.

This study is one that is worth reading and has many applications with our work through the CEL project. Fourteen neuro-diverse individuals aged 18-50 were interviewed about firsthand experiences in transition. There is an interesting graphic on page 2639 to summarize the findings.  They include interpersonal and system concerns; not to mention compound concerns. There are several subthemes worth reading to learn more about real life experiences; which have wider applications. Recommended by Anne Kresta.

Recommended by Antonella Strambi.

This article focuses on challenges that neurodivergent students face in the classroom, and how educators may not be aware of how their class structure is not being supportive. The article offers specific strategies for educators to use to facilitate effective education for neurodivergent students and encourages educators to try them out. Recommended by Jeni Dulek.

This article focuses on the areas of anxiety, uncertainty, and opportunity for young adults with autism, particularly in the UK, in placements that are part of the higher education experience. Researchers used survey, interviews, and focus groups for college students and for supervising staff. The value of the article is reading staff and students’ specific in placements. The comments will give you pause to think more deeply about these issues and begin to contemplate how planning and implementation of placements could be done better in the future. Corinne Woodfine.

This study used a survey and focus groups to identify perspectives and priorities of students, staff and faculty at one university. Four priorities emerged from this work including expanding mental health supports; providing training and professional development for faculty around neurodiversity and universal design for learning; centering neurodiversity in DEI initiatives; and expanding neurodiversity supports. The methods and outcomes of this study could be very useful to readers as both a place to start interventions on their campus and collecting perspectives from stakeholders on their campus. Recommended by Anne E. Marshall and Antonella Strambi.