Educating people on the autism spectrum – with the voice of an autistic person

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness and level of understanding of autism as a spectrum of diversity. Autism is an increasingly discussed neurodevelopmental disorder. It has a significant impact on the way an individual functions in the communication, social and sensory areas. This publication is the result of the study “Education of people on the autism spectrum – the voice of an autistic person” and aims to describe the difficulties faced by young adults who want to continue their education after graduating from high school. The study involved 72 people on the autism spectrum, aged 18–40. They answered descriptively to questions about their functioning at school and universities and the reasons for resigning from or taking up studies. By learning about the perspective of autistic people, proposals for actions have been defined that could enable these people to continue their education and complete their studies, which opens up many new opportunities and, at the same time, provides a chance to use the potential of these people, which may have previously been hidden due to their inability to cope with the difficulties they encounter.