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Residential Students on the Autism Spectrum
Creating inclusive residential student communities is critical
to fostering a sense of belonging for all students.
CONTEXTUALIZING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines define autism spectrum
disorder as entailing " deficits in social-emotional reciprocity; deficits in nonverbal
communicative behaviors; and deficits in developing, understanding, maintaining
relationships . . . repetitive speech or motor movements; insistence on sameness, restricted
interests, or unusual response to sensory input " (Baio et al., 2018, para. 7).2
The number of formal ASD diagnoses continues to rise in the United States. About
one in 59 children were diagnosed with ASD in 2014, compared to one in 125 in 2004
(CDC, 2024, para. 3)
Centering clinical diagnoses of disability or individual-level sets of criteria or indicators
of disability does not provide an appropriate framework for studying campus
environments, policies, and practices as experienced by students. However, recent research
emphasizes social constructionist models (Evans et al., 2017; Kimball et al.,
2016) that position disabilities such as ASD as flexible social identities or sets of embodied
experiences that are nonetheless, within the prevailing contexts of neurotypicality,
subject to being stigmatized or marginalized as deficiencies, tacitly reinforcing the
initial CDC definitions above. Residence life offers many opportunities to identify and
address disabling barriers for students with autism. There may be procedural barriers
in student codes of conduct, especially within provisions that reflect the tacit yet unarticulated
social norms and expectations of students. Behavioral manifestations of autism
such as unwelcome contact that transgress neurotypically centered social norms
or codes of conduct (DiMaria, 2018) can result in formal conduct or Title IX violation
charges, thus magnifying the social isolation or community marginalization that many
autistic students experience. In a larger sense, these barriers hinder community participation,
educational opportunities, and students' sense of belonging and inclusion.
Being on the autism spectrum is not inconsistent with academic achievement
and success. Forty-four percent of eight-year-olds in CDC's ASD networking and
monitoring sites posted IQ scores in the average to above average range (Baio et al.,
2018), and neurodiverse applicants (including autistic students) meet the same
threshold qualifications for admission as those for all students (Kimball et al., 2016).
Yet in one early study, students with disabilities had lower rates of degree completion
than students without disabilities despite having the same academic qualifications
upon matriculation (Belch, 2004).
Many colleges and universities are creating or expanding programs or initiatives
to provide support, advocacy, structures, and mentoring for students with autism that
can lead to their successful retention and graduation. Higher education institutions
2 We do not condone the use of deficit language when discussing neurodiversity, but the clinical
definition is, unfortunately, written as such.
58 The Journal of College and University Student Housing

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