While most medical students report that they want to learn more about seeing patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and feel underprepared to serve these patients when they graduate from their programs, the actual amount and quality of IDD-focused curricular content in medical and dental school curricula greatly varies between institutions. This webinar will present data from a recent WITH-funded research project examining the development of inclusive IDD curricula at medical and dental schools, and will also introduce an AADMD initiative, NICHE medical, that coordinates and supports medical schools who are working to develop innovative, community-engaged IDD curricula.

Hear from a panel of college students about their experiences. Watch the "Think Higher. Think College." Campaign video. Get access to new resources for students, families, and educators, plus campaign tools to spread the word about college access for students with intellectual disability. Hosted by AUCD's Community Education and Dissemination Council.

Dr. Rujuta Bhatt Wilson will share Neurology Node Updates from the AIR-P project. The webinar will include updates on intervention studies, examining neurologic conditions in genetic Neurodevelopmental syndromes, and examination of the prevalence of co-occurring neurologic and neurodegenerative diseases in autism in adulthood.

Dr. Samantha Ross will share updates on a current AIR-P Scholars Project that has engaged autistic youth and their parents as stakeholders to evaluate the construct validity of flourishing items within the National Survey of Children's Health.

AIR-P is glad to announce a date for the rescheduled webinar: Mind the NIH-Funding Gap: Structural Discrimination in Physical Health-Related Research for Cognitively Able Autistic Adults. Topics will include: Importance of addressing physical health disparity conditions in autistic adults Structural discrimination in NIH-funded studies on physical health disparity conditions in autistic adults Description of conflicts of interest within an NIH-funded culture of academia that contribute to systemic structural discrimination in funding policies.

In this webinar Dr. Heini Natri will discuss the topic that equitable and just genetic research requires an examination of the ethical questions pertaining to marginalized communities. Many have expressed concerns over current practices of autism-related genetic research, urging the field to shift towards practices that ensure benefits and protect against harm. As an interdisciplinary working group of autistic and non-autistic individuals, we have developed guidelines for leveraging genetics to enhance the quality of life, health, and autonomy of autistic persons.

Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are prevalent in autistic individuals, but little is known about them in autistic adults. "G.I Wanna Talk About Autism" is a mixed-methods, participatory research study with the goal of 1) describing the lived experiences of autistic adults with GI symptoms, and 2) developing recommendations to improve the GI health of this population. Join this webinar to learn about the study's activities and preliminary findings.

The Autism Society of America's Vaccine Education Initiative has increased vaccine education, confidence, and accessibility throughout the Autism community. Join this discussion on health equity to learn about grassroots messaging, key lessons learned, evidence-based practices, and opportunities for community impact.

Big data can provide population-level indicators for autism research focused on physical health. Claims data are a useful big data tool that emerge from health systems and provide translational research opportunities to improve health outcomes across large groups and communities. Claims data are generated at local, state, and federal levels, and from multiple insurance sources. In this webinar, we will describe existing approaches to the use of claims data for autism research focused on physical health and present and discuss opportunities for future research.

This presentation will review literature on environmental factors, and gene-environment interactions, for autism and related traits and discuss gaps and needs for future research studies. Topics will include: -How do environmental factors contribute to Autism? -Autism comes from both genetic and environmental factors, though few studies have examined them jointly. -Future research needs to more frequently examine modifiable exposures and impacts on traits and disabilities associated with autism.

This in-person, semi-annual event is an opportunity to highlight innovative life course intervention research  supported by the Autism Intervention Research Network on Physical Health (AIR-P). This event is part of the AUCD 2022 Conference.

In this talk, Dr. Botha will discuss the relevance of the Minority Stress Model for understanding health outcomes in the autistic community. The minority stress model posits that marginalized groups have an additional stress burden to contend with related to living in unequal society. This stress burden can translate into health inequalities. Yet, there are also factors which may buffer against these effects such as community connectedness, collective resilience, and positive identity, and the creativity of marginalised communities in facing minority stress should not be ignored.

In this webinar, Laura will begin by discussing the research to practice gap in autism education, before emphasizing the need to take a collaborative approach when it comes to meeting the needs of autistic young people in school. Laura will then focus on a case example of a research-practice partnership, where researchers at the Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE) worked collaboratively with staff from an inclusive school for children aged 4-11 years, to evaluate the use of flexible seating in classrooms.