Readiness Without a Rubric: A New Transition Tool Listens First
When autistic teenagers grow up, the question isn’t whether they’re ready for adulthood.
It’s whether the world is ready for them.
A new study released in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders doesn’t claim to fix that. But it does offer something rare: a tool that listens before it labels.
Let’s talk about the Transition Readiness Scale–Adapted (TRS-A) — and why it might matter more than its modest name suggests.
What They Built
Researchers adapted an existing readiness scale to better reflect the realities of autistic young adults — especially Latino youth navigating U.S. systems that rarely speak their language or recognize their goals.
This wasn’t just a translation. It was a transformation.
Instead of measuring how well autistic teens align with college-bound milestones, the TRS-A includes:
- Broader post-secondary paths (jobs, independence, housing)
- Caregiver perspectives that don’t assume overinvolvement
- Culturally responsive items — co-designed with autistic self-advocates and families
114 autistic young adults (48 English-speaking, 66 Spanish-speaking) and their caregivers participated. The result? A bilingual, statistically sound and refreshingly non-pathologizing tool for guiding transition support.
What They Got Right
Too often, “transition” in autism research becomes code for:
- Can this teen work?
- Can they live alone?
- Can we get them off our books?
The TRS-A takes a different approach.
It recognizes that:
- Autonomy isn’t always about independence
- Readiness includes emotional coping, not just logistical skills
- Language, culture, and family role shape what support means
- The system — not the person — is often the barrier
It doesn’t measure success by proximity to neurotypical adulthood.
It asks: What does this person need? Who’s in their corner? What’s getting in the way?
That’s not radical. But in a field still addicted to IQ cutoffs and “functioning labels,” it’s rare enough to feel like resistance.
What We Should Still Ask
No tool is perfect. The TRS-A is a pilot, not a panacea.
- Its sample size is small and U.S.-based.
- It may still privilege verbal participants or those with caregiving support.
- It doesn’t (yet) account for autistic people with high support needs who can’t complete traditional self-report measures.
And like all readiness tools, it risks being co-opted — turned into a checklist for eligibility or a filter for who “deserves” services.
That’s not a flaw of the tool.
It’s a flaw of the systems we’re forced to measure ourselves into.
But here’s the difference: the TRS-A was designed with autistic input. It doesn’t rank people. It reflects them.
And that’s a start.
If we want to build better futures, we need better questions.
Not just “Is this young person ready?”
But: Ready for what? On whose terms? And who decides?
This tool doesn’t answer those questions.
But it doesn’t dodge them either.
And for once, that’s something to work with — not against.