Accessibility-Focused Research Team Will Study How Best to Engage Students on the Autism Spectrum in STEM
Many people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are unemployed or underemployed, at least partially because they do not have access to educational opportunities that support them in meeting their potential. The interdisciplinary Ability Project at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and the City University of New York (CUNY) College of Staten Island — working with students from the nonprofit Tech Kids Unlimited (TKU) — are conducting collaborative research to identify effective methods to empower interested adolescents on the autism spectrum to seek out careers related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The research is being funded by a three-year National Science Foundation (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) award totaling nearly a million dollars.