Helping or hindering: the role of secondary educators in facilitating friendship opportunities among students with and without autism or developmental disability

This is an interpretivist qualitative study that explores the contexts and dynamics of friendships between three groups of young adults; each group includes an individual with autism or severe disability and nondisabled high school students. The most prominent finding identified in the data was that educators affected opportunities for social interactions between students with and without autism or severe disability. Educator influence on social participation included factors that decreased interactions, such as missed opportunities for social interactions and social consequences of academic supports. Educator influence also included factors that increased interactions, specifically four strategies to increase social interactions and facilitate possible friendships or maintain existing friendships between students with and without autism or severe disability.