Statement from MacART on World Autism Day 2026

April 2^nd is World Autism Day, and the beginning of World Autism Month, when we highlight the continued need for active inclusion of Autistic people in developing research, policies, and supports for more than 75 million Autistic people across the world. One in 50 Canadian children and youth between ages 1 to 17 are Autistic, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC, 2022), and recent work involving members of our team estimates the prevalence of autism in Canadian adults to be 1.8% (Collins, 2024). As Autistic people are experts in their own lived experience, they must be brought to the forefront of research to ultimately foster a more inclusive world.

In 2026, the McMaster Autism Research Team (MacART; www.macautism.ca) is celebrating its 10^th anniversary! We are excited to commemorate a decade of efforts in bridging the gap between autism research and practice in partnership between McMaster Children’s Hospital, Hamilton Health Sciences, and McMaster University. MacART encourages collaboration among Autistic people, families, researchers, clinicians, educators, and policymakers whose lives and work are touched by autism.

Over the last decade there have been important changes to how research, policy, and supports for Autistic people are approached. Informed by the Autistic community, we have shifted our language to focus on strengths over deficits, and continued to move toward participatory research. We urge the autism research field to continue to build capacity for participatory research, where Autistic people and members of their communities can lead and be personally engaged from the start.

We celebrate the creation of our National Autism Strategy, which is helping to frame and streamline this work. Supporting the implementation of the Strategy through projects such as the National Centre for Autism Collaboration (NCAC) and National Autism Network, our goal is to drive forward initiatives that aim to increase equity and inclusion for Autistic people in everyday life. One important pillar of the NCAC, spearheaded by our longtime collaborators at Autism Alliance of Canada, is a Training Collaborative that will build pathways for training future scholars and clinicians. MacART continues to prioritize training and education toward developing and uplifting our next generation of learners.

Maya Albin, a MacART trainee, is a Speech-Language Pathologist and PhD student supervised by MacART associate member, Dr. Michelle Phoenix. She is working on timely research focused on improving communication supports for Autistic people. Maya’s research involves co-designing improved social communication supports for and with Autistic youth (ages 15-24) and people close to them (i.e., parents, siblings, friends, speech-language pathologists). Her study, Building Relationships through Inclusive co-Design to Guide Effective Communication Partner Training (BRIDGE-CPT) included individual interviews and co-design focus groups.

BRIDGE-CPT is co-led by a team of Autistic youth and adults who have been involved from conceptualization through to knowledge translation. “Co-design ensures that every stage of the research process, from the research question, materials, and analysis, is informed by Autistic people’s lived and living experience (e.g., our consent video, an idea suggested by Autistic team members),” says Maya. “It has been a pleasure working with our team of Autistic co-researchers and learning from participants throughout the co-design process. I know that the work we created together is much more meaningful because of their invaluable input.”

MacART is committed to helping build frameworks that can better promote an inclusive world for Autistic people, through facilitating participation in research and development of supports that address community-identified needs. These efforts build toward our goal of advancing autism policy and practice through meaningful research.

MacART is proud to be supported by our partners: