Examining the Social Communication and Community Engagement of Autistic Adults through an Asynchronous Focus Group

Purpose: Little research has explored the communication needs of autistic adults and how their needs differ from those of other disabled populations. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) can support these communication needs, but more guidance is needed on how to design AAC to support this population. Materials and Methods: We conducted an online, asynchronous, text-based focus group with five autistic adults to explore their social communication and community engagement and how AAC can help support them. Results and Conclusion: Our analysis of the participant responses found that 1) participants' emotional experiences impacted the communication methods they used, 2) speaking autistic adults can benefit from AAC use, and 3) autistic shutdown creates dynamic communication needs. We present implications for future AAC design: supporting communication in times of shutdown, indicating communication ability to communication partners, and a need to better understand the fear of using AAC. These implications can inform the design for future AAC systems. We also provide themes for future autism research: exploring the impact of a late diagnosis, gaining a better understanding of the communication needs during autistic shutdown, and expanding research to include the social and environmental factors that impact communication. Finally, we provide guidance on how future online focus groups can be run in an accessible manner.