Characteristics and quality of autism websites.
Government autism websites are the most trustworthy, so give families .gov links and warn them off commercial or fad pages.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lovell et al. (2012) ran two online surveys. They asked people to rate autism websites.
They compared .gov sites, commercial sites, and sites that push non-science treatments.
What they found
.gov pages scored highest for trust and accuracy. Commercial and fad-treatment sites scored lowest.
No site was perfect, but government URLs were the safest bet.
How this fits with other research
Schott et al. (2021) show most autistic adults still lack real-life services. Good websites matter because families use them to find those scarce slots.
Laugeson et al. (2014) found insurance mandates cluster in already-rich states. That means families in high-need areas rely on the web even more, so bad sites hurt them most.
Silbaugh et al. (2022) urge ABA agencies to self-audit quality. Brian et al. do the same for websites—both push measurable standards instead of guesswork.
Why it matters
When you hand a parent a resource list, start with .gov links. Tell them why commercial or miracle-cure sites can waste time and money. One extra sentence in your parent training can steer families toward evidence and away from hype.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The World Wide Web is a common method for obtaining information on autism spectrum disorders, however, there are no guidelines for finding websites with high quality. We conducted two studies examining the characteristics and/or quality of autism websites in 2009 and 2010. We found websites with a .gov top-level domain had a statistically significant association with high quality websites and websites offering a product or service and websites promoting a non-evidence-based practice had a statistically significant association with poor quality websites. Based on our work we concluded that online information should not replace the information consumers obtain from professionals. Further implications for practice, overview of study limitations and future directions are provided.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2012 · doi:10.1007/s10803-011-1342-6