In 2018, with input from an autistic research advisory group, I put out a survey which received responses from 567 autistic adults from 28 different countries around the world. 70% of respondents were under 35 years-old. The main aim of this survey was for autistic adults to indicate areas they would like to see explored in future research about sexuality, as well as how they would prefer this research to be carried out. It also provided an idea of the sexual and gender identities of people who respond to research on autistic experiences of sexuality.
I am currently writing up results for various publications, which will be posted on this site, but in the meantime I wanted to share some of the results with you. You can access the full thesis here.
It is important to note that these results in no way claim to be representative of autistic people generally. They give a snap-shot of the people who responded to this call for participants via local, national, and student organisations active in autistic advocacy and services, and through social media (Twitter and Facebook).
While about a quarter of respondents were assigned male at birth and the rest were assigned female at birth, a very large proportion of people (almost 50%) identified in varying ways as being non-binary. The most popular response for sexual identity was bisexual, with almost a third of participants defining themselves this way, either uniquely or in combination with other identities.
An important reason for doing the survey was to ask people what their priorities are for future research. The table below shows the % of people to put the choice in either 1st or 2nd position.
1 Sexuality & sensory experience 44.72%
2 Intimate relationships 39.43%
3 Social barriers to sexuality 34.47%
4 Sexual education 30.55%
5 Sexuality and gender roles 26.16
6 Constructing sexual identity 24.92%
Regarding how people would like to participate in future research, participants overwhelmingly preferred to respond to questions in writing and be given time to consider the questions before responding.
These results led me to then carry out in-depth written interviews. You can see more about that here.
I would like to thank everyone who participated in the survey.