Sponsor
The AASPIRE projects discussed in this article were funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (R34MH111536 and R34MH092503); the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute (OCTRI), grant number UL1 RR024140 from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research; Portland State University; and The Burton Blatt Institute and Michael Morris. The Partnering with People with Developmental Disabilities to Address Violence Project was funded by Centers for Disease Control/Association of University.
Published In
Autism in Adulthood
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
Subjects
Autistic people -- Services for, Autism -- Research -- Citizen participation
Abstract
Despite growing appreciation of the need for research on autism in adulthood, few survey instruments have been validated for use with autistic adults. We conducted an institutional ethnography of two related partnerships that used participatory approaches to conduct research in collaboration with autistic people and people with intellectual disability. In this article, we focus on lessons learned from adapting survey instruments for use in six separate studies. Community partners identified several common problems that made original instruments inaccessible. Examples included: (1) the use of difficult vocabulary, confusing terms, or figures of speech; (2) complex sentence structure, confusing grammar, or incomplete phrases; (3) imprecise response options; (4) variation in item response based on different contexts; (5) anxiety related to not being able to answer with full accuracy; (6) lack of items to fully capture the autism-specific aspects of a construct; and (7) ableist language or concepts. Common adaptations included: (1) adding prefaces to increase precision or explain context; (2) modifying items to simplify sentence structure; (3) substituting difficult vocabulary words, confusing terms, or figures of speech with more straightforward terms; (4) adding hotlinks that define problematic terms or offer examples or clarifications; (5) adding graphics to increase clarity of response options; and (6) adding new items related to autism-specific aspects of the construct. We caution against using instruments developed for other populations unless instruments are carefully tested with autistic adults, and we describe one possible approach to ensure that instruments are accessible to a wide range of autistic participants.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1089/aut.2019.0074
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/32505
Citation Details
Nicolaidis, C., Raymaker, D. M., McDonald, K. E., Lund, E. M., Leotti, S., Kapp, S. K., ... & Hunter, M. (2020). Creating accessible survey instruments for use with autistic adults and people with intellectual disability: lessons learned and recommendations. Autism in Adulthood.
Description
© Christina Nicolaidis et al., 2020; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.