Work-in-Progress: Updated Progress Towards Understanding Perspectives among Neurodiverse Undergraduate Researchers in STEM

In this work-in-progress research paper, we update the community on the assessment tool we have been developing to assess Thriving in STEM undergraduate researchers across neurodiversity. Neurodivergent students are often marginalized and stigmatized to the point of feeling pressure to "normalize" or "camouflage" their behavior to appear neurotypical. We have generated a preliminary assessment tool to understand the perspectives of neurodiverse students in undergraduate research, specifically their priorities in community, culture, and future prospects. Our investigation reports a qualitative assessment of these categories between neurodivergent students in STEM research environments compared to their neurotypical counterparts. The survey was first improved after cognitive interviews, and then distributed among STEM undergraduates. In this paper, we report the refinement process of the survey and the initial quantitative survey results.