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The purpose of this study is to highlight the need to develop and expand specialized support for people with ASD, examining the effect of these services on their families' quality of life. Despite efforts to promote diversity and equal opportunities for people with disabilities, Cyprus faces challenges in various levels such as in society, education, and employment. Unlike other countries, there is limited literature and data on adults with ASD in Cyprus, which prevents from forming an accurate assessment of their needs and the impact on their quality of life. Further, as a European Union Member State, Cyprus has restrictions on specialized programs and benefits, which makes it difficult to fully implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This led to a lack of effective support services for adults with ASD and their families. Consequently, parents express concerns about the support that will be available for their adult children in the future. This study uses qualitative data obtained through the constant comparative method and is part of a larger project that includes both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The study presents important issues such as the positive impact of services on these adults and their families, families' concerns about specialized support and programs for people with ASD, and their relationships with their parents. The results are expected to raise awareness, promote social policy development, and improve the quality of life of people with ASD and their families in Cyprus.

This study aims to explore the information needs of Chinese parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and how these needs evolve as their children develop.

This study collated 17,122 questions regarding raising children with ASD via the Yi Lin website until November 2021.

The information needs of parents of children with ASD were classified into two categories: 1) Cognition-motivation: related to children with ASD; and 2) Affection-motivation: related to their parents. Child development causes the adaptation of information needs of these parents. Within the first three years, nine different topics of these parents' information needs were identified. Major information needs at this stage are as follows: intervention content, intervention methods and pre-diagnosis questions. During the ages of three to six years, there were 13 topics of information needs for parents, focusing on three areas: intervention content, intervention methods and diagnosis and examination. There are eight topics of information needs post six years. Parents are more concerned with the three topics of intervention content, life planning and intervention methods.

This novel study indicates the complex and changing information needs of parents of children with ASD in China. It may enhance the understanding of the information needs of these parents at theoretical and practical levels, provide support for them to understand their own information needs and provide a reference for relevant government and social organisations to provide targeted information services for them.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2022-0247

Research regarding life in rural coastal communities in England has been limited, while the experience of families further marginalised by disability has been unresearched. To address this topic, a qualitative study was undertaken to explore the lives of families living with autism in rural coastal England. Twenty-two families from Cornwall and West Norfolk were interviewed in early 2019, including young people on the autism spectrum, their siblings, parents (some of whom were themselves also on the spectrum) and grandparents.

Perceived benefits of living in a rural coastal space were identified. These included the location, the sense of community and the sense of ‘going back in time’ as a positive experience. However, families also spoke of barriers and challenges associated with negative aspects of the location, the experience of stigma and intersectionality in relation to autism and rural coastal spaces. Difficulties concerning education, health and social care support were worsened by poor local infrastructure and the impact of a decade of austerity.

The qualitative methodology involving collaboration with families with autism in developing the research tools, participant recruitment and stakeholder validation is considered.

This research explored the intersecting impacts of rurality, coastality and disability to provide a novel and more nuanced understanding of such families' experiences. As such, it contributes to our understanding of those living ‘on the edge’ – regarding physical location, societal and educational marginalisation.

Although increased social time is associated with healthier lifestyles, autistic people often present in therapy with social time difficulties. Given the growing interest in digital interventions and their applicability for autistic individuals, a social time app could be beneficial to support autistic people to manage social time, but there is limited research in this field, especially that which involves people with lived experience. The purpose of this study was to use co-production to conduct consultations with expert clinicians about the relationship between autism and social time, and the future development of a smartphone app to monitor and support social time in autistic people.

A qualitative methodology investigated clinicians’ views on the relationship between autism and social time and potential development of a social time app. Clinicians (N = 8) participated in semi-structured interviews facilitated by a researcher with lived experience of autism.

Participants were psychologists and psychotherapists from a specialist autism service. Thematic analysis identified factors associated with social time, such as differences with neurotypical populations, need for balance with non-social time and gender differences. According to participants, advantages of social time were connecting with people and forming relationships, whereas challenges were limited social skills, anxiety and anger and frustration. Suggested features of an app were a user-friendly design, psychoeducational components and prompts and reminders. Potential advantages of the app were support outside of therapy, support in therapy and monitoring emotional responses, whereas challenges were task completion and personalising content.

Findings reinforce the importance of a balance between social and non-social time for autistic people, which could be monitored and supported using a social time app. Clinicians could incorporate use of this app within psychological therapies to support emotional regulation and general functioning.

Parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities are frequently given news that is difficult to hear and can be very traumatic. Whether receiving an initial diagnosis for their baby or learning about guardianship options for their adult child, emotional reactions almost always occur, especially because of the interdependent relationship they have with their child. These emotions likely impact the meaning parents give to information and decisions they make for their children throughout their lives. Medical, education, and other support providers sometimes assume parents can objectively receive information that frequently is communicated in a technical and clinical way. They may not give parents the time to emotionally process what they have learned, limiting their ability to care for their child. This chapter presents the results from a series of focus groups with 21 parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities of varying ages. The participants discussed their emotional reactions to information communicated to them about medical, educational and social concerns related to their children. In addition, they discussed how emotions impacted their information processing and sensemaking as they gave meaning to what they learned. Analysis of the results identified eight emotion-based information processing and sensemaking themes that are described in detail. The discussion section provides an enhanced explanation for emotion's role in parental information processing and sensemaking. In addition, recommendations for providers communicating emotional information to parents are provided.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated food insecurity and insufficiency in the United States. However, the causes of food insufficiency among people with disabilities during the pandemic are not well understood. This paper examined how loneliness and household structure are associated with food insufficiency among working-age adults (ages 18–64) with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using 2021 National Survey on Health and Disability data, we conducted logistic regression to estimate the association between loneliness, household composition, and food insufficiency. Measures of household structure, such as the number of children in the household and living with other adults, were not associated with food insufficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondary analyses found that loneliness had a strong association with food insufficiency for those who live alone. Respondents who lived alone and reported feeling lonely had the highest odds of being food insufficient during the pandemic. Our findings indicate that in addition to household structure, it is important to assess psychosocial well-being, such as measures of loneliness, when examining food insufficiency among working-age adults with disabilities.

In 2008, the United States passed the Higher Education Opportunity ACT (Public Law 110-315). The goal of this legislation was to increase the participation of individuals with intellectual disabilities in post-secondary education (PSE) programmes and improve the abysmal (14%) employment rate among this population. To help start PSE programmes on college campuses, many universities waived their normal enrolment requirements and established unique entrance prerequisites for these specialised programmes to increase inclusive participation. Today, there are 318 PSE programmes located across 49 of the 50 United States. Utilising a qualitative design, researchers conducted semi-focused interviews with 13 recent PSE graduates to give voice to this marginalised group of students. Researchers examined graduates' perceptions of the benefits and shortcomings of their college experiences and how the programme prepared them for life after college. Using thematic and deductive analysis, 14 themes and 3 subthemes were identified. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.