The research advisory group (RAG) for this thesis was made up of nine autistic adults from the UK, the USA, and Germany. The RAG was recruited via posts on Twitter (now X) and Facebook, and throughout the study we communicated via email and a private discussion forum on this site, to which all advisors had access. More information about the RAG can be found in the full thesis, here.
The advisory group first provided input on a survey that was carried out online. The principal aim of the survey was to find out what autistic adults wanted to see researched in the area of sexuality, and the most accessible ways of carrying out interviews, although I was also interested in the sexual and gender identities of autistic people responding to calls for online research around sexuality. You can see more about the survey, including some results, here.
Finally, leaning on results of the survey to guide me with questions and methods, I carried out in-depth, mostly written interviews, with 16 autistic adults. You can read more about these interviews here.
The RAG provided valuable input into the interview questions and the study more generally, for which I am very grateful.