Course Description: Healthcare Appointment Preparation for Autistic Young Adults: Using the AASPIRE Toolkit

A self-paced microlearning module that helps autistic young adults prepare for healthcare appointments – from finding a provider through following up afterward – using AASPIRE's Healthcare Toolkit, a resource co-created by autistic adults and researchers.

Format: An introduction, five short content sections, retrieval activities (card sort and flip cards), and a confidence self-rating at the start and end. A table of contents supports both paths: work through the sections in order, or jump straight to what's needed.

Tools: Articulate Rise 360 and Canva.

The need: Medical appointments stack sensory load, communication differences, and cognitive demand – and most patient-prep materials don't account for any of it. This course gives learners a low-pressure way into AASPIRE's toolkit: see which worksheets fit their situation and use them, without facing the full toolkit at once.

Design choices:

• Built on a community-created resource. Content links out to AASPIRE's own worksheets rather than recreating them, so learners build the habit of using the real toolkit.

• One predictable pattern, learned once. Every section follows the same rhythm – a "Think First" question before reading, brief content, a "Think Back" question connecting it to the learner's own situation. Retrieve-before-told, drawn from Saundra McGuire's work on how students learn.

• Practice framed as private thinking, not testing. Retrieval activities aren't graded, and confidence ratings at both ends let learners notice their own change rather than being scored on it.

• The system named as the problem, not the learner. The difficulty is framed as a medical system not designed for autistic patients. Reassuring language throughout: it's ok not to know, and no required set of worksheets – learners choose what fits.

• Accessible and low-load by design. Plain, literal, identity-first language with no idioms; segmented content; learner-controlled pacing; alt text; WCAG-compliant contrast; keyboard access confirmed for the card sort.

Click below to go to the course