Date of Award

Summer 8-31-2025

Document Type

Campus Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Clinical Psychology

First Advisor

Abbey Eisenhower

Second Advisor

Alice Carter

Third Advisor

Sarabeth Broder-Fingert

Abstract

Autistic adolescents and adults experience ableism in schools (Williams et al., 2019). Further, educators may hold ableist views about autistic students (Nah & Tan, 2023). Many autistic youth receive special education services outlined in an Individualized Education Program (IEP) (IDEA, 2004), which may reflect these ableist views. The current study analyzed the IEPs of 41 school-aged autistic youth for ableist and neurodiversity affirming messages. Quantitatively, IEPs were coded for ableist and neurodiversity affirming messages across pre-determined categories. Further, associations between the ableist and neurodiversity affirming measures and students’ characteristics including IQ, verbal ability, and internalizing/externalizing symptoms were examined. IEPs were both moderately ableist and neurodiversity affirming. Possibly ableist language (i.e., terminology rejected by autistic people) was lower in the IEPs of students with higher verbal ability. Associations were not found between all other variables. Qualitatively, 26 IEPs were examined using thematic analysis. Three themes emerged related to ableism: 1) autistic ways of being were described as problematic, 2) blaming child characteristics for negative outcomes, and 3) ambiguously ableist descriptions of the student or interventions. Four themes emerged related to neurodiversity affirming ideologies: 1) IEPs included accommodations commonly recommended for autistic students, 2) many IEPs encouraged or acknowledged student autonomy, preferences, and methods of expression, 3) some IEPs identify students’ underlying needs rather than placing blame on the student, and 4) staff support the student to navigate social interactions in ways that did not encourage the student to appear neurotypical. Our findings have implications for training educators in neurodiversity affirming approaches.

Comments

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