In recognition of its commitment to genuinely engage and work with people with autism as well as the wider autistic community, the University of Wollongong was recently made a co-production partner in the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC).
The Autism CRC established the Research Co-production Partner Initiative to promote inclusive research practices with autistic community members and families.
Traditionally, most research about autism is conducted by people who are not themselves on the autism. However, researchers at UOW, led by Dr Amanda Webster, from the School of Education, are involving autistic people in all aspects of the research process, from deciding research questions, to data collection and analysis, to translating the findings into real-world outcomes.
Research co-production refers to researchers and end-users working together as peers to ensure the purpose, methodology and application of research are relevant to, and meaningful for the end users – in this case, autistic individuals and their families.
Co-production recognises and values the skills and expertise that autistic people, their families and carers have gained through their lived experience, and engages them at every stage of the research process.
In one UOW project, members of the autistic community were engaged as research assistants to help construct principles for designing autistic-friendly businesses and community environments.
In another initiative, Dr Webster and Ms Barb Cook, an autistic author, established the Autism Community of Practice (CoP), which has engaged a number of autistic individuals as co-investigators on research to develop tools and strategies to promote the self-determination of autistic people.
This group is currently undertaking projects in schools disability service programs, and has contributed knowledge and practice under the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
