Knowledge is Power: Rethinking Healthcare for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Patients.

Autism is a developmental disability that exists across racial, ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic boundaries. Unfortunately, the lived experiences of autistic individuals and their families as supported by evidence in the existing literature suggest that culturally and linguistically diverse families' engagement in healthcare and education face a multitude of challenges, particularly during high-stakes meetings and healthcare appointments (e.g., Individualized Education Plan meetings, patient visits, and diagnostic results interpretation meetings). These challenges prevent culturally and linguistically diverse autistic individuals from accessing adequate care. In this paper, we propose solutions to be adopted by healthcare and education systems to address those challenges. First, we urge providers to address the systemic problems that commonly occur during meetings. Second, we propose service providers adopt a cultural and linguistic 'match' process. We recommend asking families about their specific language preferences and ensuring the selection of translators who speak the family's preferred language and dialect. Employing these transformations will require education and healthcare systems to allocate more resources for translation services to enhance the training and recruitment of interpreters and ensure that interpreter-family pairs are provided time for consultation prior to high-stakes meetings. Ultimately, these adaptations to the service provision environment would produce opportunities for translators to act as cultural liaisons and, with time, become trusted partners for families.

Special education staff well-being and the effectiveness of remote services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since March 2020, many school districts across the country have employed remote learning procedures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, schools continued to provide special education services, yet little is known about how services were adapted for remote or hybrid learning during the height of the pandemic in the United States. In the current study, 332 respondents completed a web-based survey that asked what special education services were provided remotely, whether services were deemed effective, and how remote learning has influenced their well-being. Most respondents identified as White (79.5%), females (92.4%), and worked as special education teachers (52.9%) and school psychologists (35.4%). In compliance with federal guidelines, most respondents continued to hold individualized education plan meetings, conduct assessments, and provide interventions and related services. There was a significant decrease in respondents' reports of efficacy and sense of school connectedness during remote and hybrid learning. Respondents' identification as a person of color, along with reports of higher school connectedness and self-efficacy were positive predictors of their perceived effectiveness of remote special education service delivery. Recommendations are made for school districts to inform decisions regarding their approach to special education services and staff support during remote or hybrid learning.