Exploring Ghanaian and Nigerian autistic adults' experiences of accessing and utilising services in the UK

This research aims to explore autistic adults from sub-Saharan Africa's experiences with autism services in the United Kingdom (UK). It will focus on Nigerian and Ghanaian autistic adults as they are from two of the largest and most settled African communities in the UK. Therefore, to participate, individuals will be required to be at least 16 years of age and define themselves as being autistic, Ghanaian, or Nigerian by birth or descent and living in the UK. Utilising an explanatory sequential mixed method approach, the project will explore from the participants' viewpoint, their perceptions, and experiences of accessing and utilising autism services. There is limited autism research with Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in the UK, particularly focussing on adults. This is even worse for people from sub-Saharan Africa. This is even though they are the second largest non-European immigrant group in the UK. Yet there is a general recognition that, only through the active participation and inclusion of viewpoints and perceptions from diverse autistic individuals can autism research be meaningful and have practical applications. At the same time, how the intersection of race, ethnicity and disability contributes to service experiences and outcomes for service users remains little understood. There is clearly a need for research into autistic experiences in the context of culture and race or ethnicity to develop evidence of an "insider's perspective" of specific autistic communities such as those from Nigeria and Ghana. This project will therefore contribute to a better understanding of the experiences of sections of the autism community that are often under-represented in research and planning of services/interventions.
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) employing the lens of intersectionality will be used for this project. This is because IPA is particularly useful in exploring individuals' lived experiences from their perspective, especially in areas with limited previous research. It recognises each participant as an expert of their own experiences and allows them to represent themselves. The concept of intersectionality will be a useful means of understanding the specific experiences of accessing and utilising autism services of Nigerian and Ghanaian autistic adults in the UK. This is because intersectionality as an analytical tool states that the overlap of various social identities in an individual results in specific experiences of advantage or disadvantage. Therefore, these participants may have different experiences to other autistic adults due to culture and/or race/ethnicity. Intersectionality can help understand these differences as well as highlight participants' specific needs.