Understanding Women’s Autistic Identities: Enhancing Wellbeing Through Self-Reflection

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Date Posted

Research Study Description

Who am I and what is this study about?
My name is María Paula Silva and I am an MSc student of Human-Computer Interaction at University College Dublin. This study seeks to explore the experiences of autistic women, with the purpose of understanding how technology can be used for building positive autistic identities and improve the wellbeing of autistic people.

What will taking part involve?
Your participation will consist of completing a survey that will guide you in reflecting on your ASD experience and identity, and you will also be asked to complete a survey regarding your age, gender and levels of support concerning your ASD diagnosis. At the end of this survey, you will be asked if you would like to continue participating in a secondary phase of the study, which involves a co-design workshop.

If you choose to participate in the workshop, you will interact with a prototype of a novel digital tool based on the findings from the survey. During the workshop, we will guide you to share your opinions about this tool

What personal information does this study collect?
Name
Age
Gender
Email
Age when you receive your ASD diagnosis
Level of support needed regarding your ASD diagnosis
Ethnicity
Sexual orientation
Highest degree or school level completed
Occupation

How will this information be stored and for what purpose?
All data will be confidential and the only people who will have access to it are the researcher, María Paula Silva, and the academic supervisor, Dr Kevin Doherty. The audio recordings will be used to generate transcriptions and conduct further analysis by the researcher, and will be stored in the researcher’s Google Drive. All data gathered, whether from surveys or online workshops will be pseudonymised past the point of collection. Personal identifiable information will be removed from the transcriptions, will not be shared with anyone else and will not be included in any findings from the study.

Participants’ rights under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
All personal data gathered during this study will be treated subject to the rules and regulations of the GDPR, where you have a number of rights in relation to our registration and processing of your data. Please contact me at [email protected], or Dr Kevin Doherty at [email protected] if you have any questions or you would like to exercise these rights.

If I change my mind, can I withdraw my consent to participate in the study?
Yes. Your participation is voluntary and you are free to withdraw your consent at any point in time, without the need to provide a reason, by contacting the researcher at [email protected].

I want to participate in the study, what should I do next?
If you are over 18 years old and require minimal support in relation to being autistic (ASD Level 1 diagnosis), we would greatly appreciate your participation. Please confirm your consent and complete our survey using this Google Form: https://forms.gle/ePjNoN2fGbcxDxB68



Name of Organization:
University College Dublin


For questions, please email::
[email protected]


Study Link: 
https://forms.gle/KLhCy9mQcptqz1AX8