Date on Honors Thesis

Spring 5-5-2025

Major

Communication Disorders and Psychology

Examining Committee Member

Dr. Michael Bordieri, Advisor

Examining Committee Member

Dr. Stephanie Schaaf, Committee Member

Examining Committee Member

Dr. Becky Nastally, Committee Member

Abstract/Description

Roughly 30% of autistic individuals are nonspeaking, meaning they do not (or very minimally) communicate with speech. Many nonspeaking individuals have the ability to communicate with others by using augmentative and alternative communication, such as speech-generating devices or communication boards. The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of speaking individuals toward nonspeaking autistic people through a survey measuring attitudes and stigma toward nonspeaking people, autistic people, and disabled people, respectively. Predictors of attitudes, such as contact, knowledge, gender, and psychological inflexibility were examined. It was hypothesized that participants who have more contact with and knowledge of nonspeaking, autistic, or disabled people will have less stigmatizing attitudes, and that women will have less stigmatizing attitudes than men. It was also hypothesized that psychological inflexibility with regard to stigmatizing thoughts will positively predict stigmatizing attitudes. The results found that disability stigma was negatively correlated with disability knowledge and disability contact and was positively correlated with psychological inflexibility. Autism stigma was negatively correlated with autism knowledge. Nonspeaking stigma was positively correlated with psychological inflexibility. The disability hierarchical regression model found that disability stigma was best predicted by disability knowledge. The autism hierarchical regression model found that autism stigma was best predicted by autism knowledge. The nonspeaking hierarchical regression model found that nonspeaking stigma was best predicted by psychological inflexibility. Implications for future research and stigma prevention approaches were also discussed.

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