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Abstract

Importance: Community mobility (CM) enables access to locations outside the home, allowing participation in work, leisure, and social environments. Autistic adults have reported less access to public transportation and driving than the general population (Wilson et al., 2021), impacting their community participation, life satisfaction, and likelihood of employment and further education (Egilson et al., 2016, Song et al., 2022, Wilson et al., 2021). Occupational therapists can support autistic people by providing interventions to increase CM.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to improve CM in autistic people.

Methods: We collaborated with a medical librarian to conduct a systematic review through three databases: PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL. 247 articles were reviewed for inclusion. We included articles if they were published between 2015 and 2025, written in English, quantitative, and included autistic people as the population, occupational therapy interventions, and CM as the outcome. 48 articles were retrieved for full-text review and 15 met inclusion criteria.

Results: Three themes emerged: driving and community mobility education, driving simulators, and virtual reality. Two Level 1B and four Level 3B studies provide moderate strength of evidence supporting driving and CM education programs to improve driving and CM skills. Four Level 3B studies provided moderate strength of evidence supporting driving simulator interventions to improve simulated driving performance. One Level 2A, two level 3B, and one level 4 studies provided low strength of evidence supporting virtual reality or video games to improve CM skills.

Conclusion: Occupational therapists may consider implementing group or individual education sessions and driving simulator interventions on a routine basis. Virtual reality interventions may be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Impact Statement: This review provides updated information on evidence-based practices to improve community mobility in autistic people.

Learning Objective 1:

What interventions should be used routinely to improve community mobility in autistic people?

Learning Objective 2:

In this body of evidence, what are the most common measures of community mobility?

Research Area: Translational Research

Research Type: Qualitative

Primary Topic Category: Developmental Disabilities

Secondary Topic Category: Driving & Community Mobility

Level of Material: Introductory

Level Rational: This literature is aimed to be read by general practitioners who have no previous knowledge of this subject matter. The focus is to provide introductory information to whomever reads the article.

Publication Date

2025

Keywords

Community Mobility, Autism, Occupational Therapy

Disciplines

Occupational Therapy

Comments

2025 Copyright, the authors

Interventions to Improve Community Mobility in Autistic People: A Systematized Review

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