Question: What research would you present to universities in order to allow you to use their facility for visits by autistic people and their families?

Lorna Camus answered on 8 Nov 2018:

Good question!
I would run a survey (or find one that has already been done) which asks autistic people how much they trust university research on autism, and how much they want to participate. I think that current findings would show that autistic people don’t trust some of the research happening in universities, and, because of that, don’t really participate.
I think I would also show them the benefit of them opening up their doors to autistic people and their families.
For example, if I did it first at Heriot-Watt University, and found autistic people were more interested in our research and in participating in it after the event, I could go to other universities and show them that setting up an event like this could help them involve more autistic people in their research!