The development and utilization of a diversity advisory board in an intervention to support social skill development for autistic transition-aged youth.

G Williams et al. (2025) built a diversity advisory board for WorkChat, a virtual job-readiness program for autistic transition-age youth. The board included autistic adults, parents, and professionals from under-represented racial groups. They met monthly to review lesson plans, recruitment flyers, and role-play scripts before the program launched.

The paper is a case study. It describes how the board formed, how meetings ran, and what changes the team made to the curriculum. No outcome data on student skills are reported.

The advisory board flagged words, images, and examples that felt too white or too male. They swapped stock photos, added slang familiar to Black and Latino youth, and rewrote interview questions that assumed college plans. The final kit felt more welcoming to families who rarely see autism services designed with them in mind.

Reichow et al. (2010) already show that social-skills groups and video modeling are evidence-based practices for autistic youth. Ed-Dee et al. extend this work by asking: whose voice is missing when we design these EBPs? The advisory board is a practical answer.

Dyches et al. (2004) warned that autism services often ignore culture. Twenty years later, Sasson et al. (2022) still found Black autistic youth are left out of transition research. Ed-Dee et al. close the loop by showing one way to act on those warnings—invite the community to co-create the program.

Sung et al. (2019) and Morgan et al. (2014) proved employment social-skills programs can work. Ed-Dee et al. do not test outcomes; instead they lay the groundwork so future trials can recruit youth who look like the real world.

If your social-skills group is mostly white, middle-class boys, you are not serving the full autism spectrum. Form a small advisory circle now—three autistic adults, two parents, one community leader—and run every flyer, slide, and role-play past them. Their tweaks cost nothing yet can double your reach into families who already face systemic barriers.