Noëline Vivet

Noëline Vivet, a PhD student at INED, is writing her thesis on promoting sexual and reproductive health among young disabled people. After completing a review of the literature, Noëline is now working in the field.

(Interview conducted in April 2025)

I work specifically with young autistic people. I first turned to health organizations but did not receive many helpful answers from them. I also turned to autism associations, mutual assistance groups (GEMs), and autism resource centers (CRA), as well as social media influencers on Instagram and TikTok. And the snowball effect worked to help me collect additional accounts. I was able to interview 25 autistic young persons aged 18 to 24 without intellectual challenges, individuals integrated into normative social environments and without language disorders or visible difficulties. 

The aim is to provide target groups with means to take good care of themselves, so that they have all the information needed to act on factors around good health. The aim of my research is to understand what autistic young people need in their emotional and sexual lives so that they can be given recommendations. So I want to question them on their emotional and sexual needs, learn what kinds of information and advice could be useful to them, hear about their experiences, the prejudices they have to deal with, the information they already have—and so be able to set up a kind of sex education program to meet the specific needs of this population group. 

I noticed that few studies done in France discuss how to interview autistic young persons who have difficulty communicating. So I’m in England for a few months now to speak with about fifteen researchers who are experts in autism research. I want to learn about the research methods used, the levers, barriers, and limitations involved in conducting qualitative interviews with autistic young persons. I will be asking them to tell me about their research experiences, the difficulties they may have had, and for suggestions and recommendations on conducting reliable qualitative research with autistic young people using methods well adapted to this particular set of respondents.