The housing and technological needs of adults with autism are addressed on a national level in two recent studies, one by ASU’s Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family.
Released by the Urban Land Institute Arizona in collaboration with the Stardust Center, the studies identify the specific needs of the growing population of autistic adults and children who will be entering adulthood within the next 15 years and what types of housing will enable them to live independently.
The studies focuses primarily on the financial constraints of meeting those needs, while ASU’s specific companion study, “Advancing Full Spectrum Housing,” advocates for multiple housing options, focusing on the design aspects and technological housing needs of children and adults with autism.
Study co-author Sherry Ahrentzen, associate director of research at ASU’s Stardust Center, said she hopes to put a national spotlight on the issue by doing research on the housing difficulties faced by this community, and establishing resident housing goals like maximizing familiarity of the home and avoiding sensory overload.
“We’ve found through research, there is a large spectrum of housing needs,” Ahrentzen said.
The study aims to build a housing model that can be replicated on a national level and could be economically self-sustaining, she said.
The amount of research in this area is minimal in the U.S., Ahrentzen said, but the ASU study shows the vast possibilities people can live in.
Kimberly Steele, the study’s co-author and associate professor at the ASU School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture, said researchers have been looking at how to work with autistic adults who are going to be moving out into the community.
“One thing that’s become quite clear: … there is a real lack of appropriate housing for many people with developmental disabilities, and especially for adults with autism, and the specific requirements that they often have when it comes to environmental sensitivities,” Steele said.
As a parent of a child with autism, Steele said she has a deep personal interest in researching the housing needs of autistic adults.
The need to create adequate housing for autistic adults stems from not only the projected 500,000 U.S. autistic children who will reach adulthood within the next 15 years, but also the increasing amount of aging parents of autistic children who will no longer be able to provide care, Steele said.
The heightened amount of attention that autism has received, as well as recognition that it is more prevalent than previously thought, has created a crisis of housing for this population, she said.
Technology in the household will play a key role in the adjustment to independent living, Steele said.
“Some kind of technology that would assist them … would really make a huge impact,” Steele said, “allowing them to stay in their homes and live independently, and not always having to rely on another human being, which I think really compromises people’s dignity after a while.”
Reach the reporter at anatwood@asu.edu
