Autism at University
Disclaimer: Any views, opinions and tips on this blog are personal and belong solely to myself (Kyra) and don’t represent the views of affiliated professionals and organisations. Additionally, I’m not a professional advisor regarding Autism and the content produced on this blog is solely from my own experiences.
This blog post contains affiliate links, meaning I will receive a small commission for the advertised products.
Autistica defines Autism as a “spectrum of developmental conditions that affect how we communicate and experience the world around us.”
In the UK, 2.4% of the student population are diagnosed with Autism, and less than 40% of Autistic students complete their university education - meaning they’re 10 times more likely to drop out than the Allist community (60% vs 6.3%).
These statistics show that more needs to be done to decrease the overall dropout rate of Autistics at universities, and I hope that sharing my experience in this post will shed light on understanding university from an Autistic perspective.
What I found most challenging
Throughout my life, I’ve often been told that I’m a sensitive individual. Due to establishing a set of rules, when someone displays a certain behaviour or action, I place it into one box or another. For example, suppose someone's behaviour displays that they’re annoyed but are actually being jokey or content. In that case, I assume they’re annoyed because I’ve always interpreted that facial expression as that particular emotion.
This is referred to as black-and-white thinking.
According to Autistica, “black-and-white thinking is the tendency to categorise situations, beliefs or people as good or bad, all right or all wrong, rather than being able to consider the possibilities of the in between.” For most of us, black-and-white thinking provides a sense of security because it allows us to be prepared for social situations with predetermined expectations based on our experiences.
Before university, I wanted to change my thinking style which affected how I developed friendships throughout school. Instead of resorting to black-and-white thinking when I was confused by someone’s actions, at university, I asked the person directly if they were okay in order to get to know their personality. Although this proved to be beneficial at first, later this response resorted to people assuming that “I’m difficult” or “overly sensitive” due to openly asking how people were. As a result, I started to be oblivious to people’s actions and behaviour, even if I had an inkling that they were being rude or hostile towards me. I did this in order to prevent people from viewing me as sensitive, difficult or weird.
This explains why “studies have found that Autistic individuals are three times more likely than neurotypical people to be targets of bullying and physical abuse.” As we’re determined to do everything we can to prevent others from isolating ourselves, even if it’s detrimental to our physical and mental wellbeing.
What has helped?
Although black-and-white thinking has become detrimental to how I make sense of the world, going to university allowed me to understand the “shades of grey” between black and white. What I mean by this is learning about different cultures and individuals throughout my university degree has helped me to establish that there isn’t just one way of thinking or being a human. As previously mentioned, black-and-white thinking involves the tendency to categorise people as good or bad. The various modules on my degree provided me with new possibilities and interpretations of individuals who were either perceived as good or bad individuals. Fundamentally, university allowed me to challenge the rules I created for myself and others, allowing me to become familiar with the unknown.
Moreover, what has also helped at university is that lecturers were open to me asking multiple questions - whether that was regarding essays, exams or lecture material. Some of you may be thinking that the purpose of lecturers is to help students succeed, however, not every lecturer is alike. Unfortunately, some lecturers are reluctant to give detailed essay feedback, especially if you ask further questions. Fortunately, on my degree, I had lecturers who were willing to answer listen and respond to my queries or worries regarding my assignments, and that benefited me in the long run as it reduced my anxiety regarding assignments. According to the National Autistic Society, an estimate of 40-50% of Autistic people receive a diagnosis of anxiety. There are multiple causes of anxiety, but in this regard, university can introduce stresses such as money worries, changes to the environment and assignment pressure. Fundamentally, lecturers answering my questions regarding assignments helped to reduce my level of anxiety in that particular area of my university life.
What hasn’t helped?
Although my university did an amazing job at raising awareness of gender identities and racialised communities, similar to other universities, it lacked the support for those who have hidden disabilities; especially those with intersected identities. For example, there were moments when I couldn't fully be myself due to the expectations placed upon me. As a woman of colour with Autism, my race is often placed at the forefront of my identity, and everyone’s expectations of me are based solely on negative stereotypes.
Black women are often expected to exude a sassy yet outgoing personality in the workplace, university, and other spaces. As Rufaro says, “Many times, we are expected to be animated in our everyday actions and behaviours for the sole purpose of entertainment.” As a result, people often misinterpreted my quietness as rude or unbothered, but in reality, I was trying to not get overly stimulated in the environment I was in.
I remember working at the university bar and masking my behaviour to appear more welcoming and polite, which often led to me being in awkward and embarrassing situations.
Unfortunately, this is an issue that has manifested throughout society, but I’ll talk more about this topic in a future blog post.
What Next?
I remember a mental health practitioner saying that I’m lucky for completing my university degree despite having Autism. However, I wouldn’t say that I’m lucky, but rather that I’m grateful for the support I had from family, friends and professionals which gave me a boost in confidence.
Unfortunately, not all Autistic students have support networks. Many have to support themselves due to limited funding for student support services that prevent many students from gaining consistent support throughout university, or because of the stigma that still prevails throughout society itself. I hope by starting this blog that it’ll provide a space for Autistic individuals to fully be themselves and be able to feel understood by a community.
There’s limited research on the intersectionality between race, disability and gender, and how it amplifies stereotypical images of specific groups, especially for Black Autistic women.