A research design that turns the hindsight of adults diagnosed with ADHD and ASD after college into a blueprint for supporting the neurodivergent students still in it.
How did undiagnosed ADHD and ASD shape people's undergraduate experience — and what can the hindsight of those diagnosed later teach institutions about supporting students still enrolled?
A phased, mixed-methods study. Phase one uses content and textual analysis of first-person accounts to build thematic grounding; phase two layers in survey research — for trends and correlations — plus focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Sampling targets adults who completed their degree before being diagnosed.
Supports framed narrowly as ADHD/ASD "accommodations" tend to help everyone: when institutions build in academic enabling behaviors, all students benefit. Broadening what counts as an accommodation improves outcomes and chips away at the stigma.
While the individual experience of each person diagnosed with either disorder cannot be universally applied to every other person, a broader understanding of what does and does not help neurodiverse students experience greater levels of success — and a reduction of barriers and stigma in the pursuit of that success — will help to advance the provision of adequate accommodations for ADHD/ASD students.
If more than solely neurodiverse students benefit from so-called "accommodations," this has the potential to correlate with reductions in social stigmatization of students with ADHD/ASD by broadening the conceptualization of the tools considered "appropriate" to facilitate student success.
Full paper available on request.