Autism Goes to College 2019
Distributed by The Video Project, 145 - 9th St., Suite 230, San Francisco, CA 94103; 800-475-2638
Produced by Jody Becker
Directed by Erik Linthorst
Streaming, 63 mins
College - General Adult
Autism; Education; Learning Disabilities
Date Entered: 02/05/2021
Reviewed by Megan Wilson, Research and Instruction Librarian, Murray State UniversityAutism Goes to College focuses its attention, not on autistic education, but on the college experience of autistic young adults. This brightly colored film follows five students on the autism spectrum as they work towards their degrees.
Each of the five students is given time to reflect on normal college concerns like academic loads, homesickness, finding a job, joining student groups, and living with roommates along with the challenges of navigating student disabilities services and requesting accommodations from professors.
Though the focus remains primarily on the students, the film also includes interviews with parents, instructors, and support staff that provide additional insight into the students' personalities and the events they describe. A mix of interviews and animated flashback segments work to keep the narrative moving while also providing sometimes amusing visual commentary.
Supplemental information about college programs, approaches, and relevant laws are provided via on-screen text with additional perspectives from autistic college graduate Alex Plank and neurodiversity scholar John Elder Robison filling in some extra details.
My one major criticism is that Autism Goes to College provides a limited geographic, ethnic, and economic perspective. Four of the five students are at public universities with over 20,000 students, all five are in the state of California. While the on-screen text does provide some additional information about how colleges on the whole deal with autism, a more geographically diverse cast could highlight some of the disparities in services offered at smaller, private, and/or less well-funded institutions and give a more well-rounded picture of what prospective students could encounter as they start college.
Autism Goes to College is recommended for students and educators in higher education interested in learning more about their autistic students and classmates. It is highly recommended for any autistic students considering attending university and their families.
Published and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Anyone can use these reviews, so long as they comply with the terms of the license.