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The tendency to study autistic children has resulted in the lack of research about autistic seniors. This chapter begins by showing the results of two studies that have measured the volume of research about autistics based on age brackets. Two factors that have hampered research about autistic seniors are then presented. This chapter then concludes by highlighting seven topics where more research can be conducted about autistic seniors. These topics are research about their physical health, cognitive abilities, mental health, employment, transport, healthcare and specific issues relating to autistics residing in a nursing home/aged care facility.

The original contribution that this chapter makes to autism spectrum research is to examine the imbalance in research between autistic children and autistic seniors and to provide several suggestions where more research can be conducted about autistic seniors.

This chapter outlines several approaches that researchers can use to help them conduct research that respects and includes autistic participants. It begins by highlighting some of the factors that should be considered before, during and after a study is conducted. It then explains some of the benefits and drawbacks of harvesting data from social media. It then concludes with a set of recommendations about inclusive research practices that can help autistic participants be equals in the research process.

The original contribution that this chapter gives to the field of autism spectrum research is to provide researchers with a clear and comprehensive outline of how to conduct research that is inclusive and respectful of autistic participants.

Literature about autistic females remains scant despite the amount of research about the autism spectrum substantially increasing over the previous decade. This chapter begins with an examination of the discrepancies between research about autistic males and females. It then examines three reasons why autistic females have rarely been researched, followed by some of the main topics that have been researched about autistic females. This chapter concludes with several suggestions for the creation of research about autistic females.

The original contribution that this chapter makes to the field of autism spectrum research is to explain the lack of research about autistic females. This objective is accomplished by presenting a synthesis of the literature about some of the barriers that prevent females from being diagnosed as autistic.

In the field of autism spectrum research, there has been a tendency to examine autistics without intellectual disabilities. This focus has come at the expense of examining their peers with intellectual disabilities, who are generally regarded as needing more assistance due to more complex support needs. This chapter begins by defining intellectual disability, followed by an examination of the literature about the prevalence of intellectual disability in the autistic population. The results from the American Government's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Autism and Developmental Monitoring (ADDM) Network about the proportion of autistics with intellectual disabilities are then outlined. Following this, the results from studies about the proportion of autistics with intellectual disabilities are presented. The goal of this section is to show that despite there being evidence that about a quarter of the autistic population have an intellectual disability, this cohort is underrepresented within research about the autism spectrum. Two reasons for this discrepancy are then outlined. This chapter concludes with three suggestions for where more research can be conducted into autistics who have an intellectual disability.

The original contribution that this chapter makes to the field of autism research is to highlight the lack of literature about members of the autistic community who have an intellectual disability as well as presenting several reasons for this lack of research and directions for research in the future.