Yvette Doss
Ph.D. Candidate in Education at UC Santa Barbara, with an emphasis in special education and disability studies.
I study how schools and educational technologies shape access and opportunity for autistic and neurodivergent students.
I am on the academic job market in fall 2026 for tenure-track positions in special education and teacher education.
I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Education at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UC Santa Barbara, with an emphasis in Special Education, Disability, and Risk Studies. My work focuses on autistic and neurodivergent students, special education systems, educational AI, and the design of inclusive learning environments.
My research asks how educational and AI systems organize and sometimes limit access for neurodivergent students.
Before my doctoral work, I spent six years as a special education teacher in LAUSD across elementary and secondary settings. I currently serve as a university supervisor for preservice teachers in their field placements, and I have served as a teaching assistant across several education courses at UCSB. I also founded the Neurodivergent Student Project, a peer-support initiative for neurodivergent students.
My approach to teaching is shaped by six years in LAUSD classrooms and ongoing work in teacher preparation. I am committed to Universal Design for Learning as both a pedagogical framework and an equity stance, one that assumes learner variability as the norm rather than the exception. At the postsecondary level, I design learning experiences that help students connect abstract educational ideas to the real decisions teachers must make about access, inclusion, and learner difference.
Workshops & Invited Talks
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TAs Supporting Students with Autism & ADHD at UCSB
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TAs Supporting Neurodivergent Students at UCSB
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Advocacy and Agency in Equity Conversations: Supporting Neurodivergent Students
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Counselors Supporting Neurodivergent Students at UCSB
Public Scholarship & Editorial Work
My research examines how educational systems organize access for autistic and neurodivergent students. My current work includes a study of autistic students' use of AI tools in higher education and contributing research on deeper learning in teacher education programs. I am also embarking on a K-12 study of least restrictive environment placement patterns for autistic students and students with specific learning disabilities in California.
Who Does the Work? Cognitive Labor Redistribution and Autistic College Student Experience in Human-AI Interaction
My dissertation examines how cognitive labor shifts when autistic college students work with AI tools, developing a framework for evaluating whether AI systems genuinely reduce burden or simply move it onto the user.
Learning From Autistic Redditors: ChatGPT Adaptations and Inclusive Educational AI Design
A study of how autistic adults and students describe using ChatGPT for executive functioning, social communication, and emotional regulation, connecting neurodiversity-affirming disability research with questions of AI accessibility and inclusive design.
Deeper Learning in Teacher Education Programs
Graduate Student Researcher on a qualitative study examining deeper learning practices across teacher education programs nationwide, through interviews with teacher candidates and faculty.
District Variation in Least Restrictive Environment Placement in California
An emerging study using California special education program-setting data to examine how least restrictive environment placement patterns vary across districts for autistic students and students with specific learning disabilities, asking whether inclusion is best understood not only as an individual IEP decision but as a district-level pattern of inclusive capacity.
- Schuck, R. K., Geng, A., Doss, Y., Lin, F., Crousore, H., Baiden, K. M., Dwyer, P., Williams, Z. J., & Wang, M. (2024). A qualitative investigation into autistic adults' perspectives on intervention goals for autistic children. Neurodiversity, 2. doi:10.1177/27546330241266718
- Lambert, R. & Doss, Y. Engaging teachers in experiences of neurodiverse students learning mathematics: Insider narratives of disability and mathematics. Mathematics Teacher Educator. Under review
- Monroy Castro, M., Lambert, R., Mireles-Rios, R., & Doss, Y. Flipping tortillas: Chicana methodologies and the embodied mathematics of Latina students. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Under review
- Doss, Y. (Ed.). (2026). Disparate Kind: Neurodivergent Poets Chapbook. Snowy Plover Press.
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2026
Learning from autistic Redditors: ChatGPT adaptations and implications for inclusive educational AI designAmerican Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA
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2026
Preparing future educators for deeper learning: Insights from a qualitative study on teacher candidate engagement with the deeper learning modules Co-authorAmerican Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA
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2025
Embodied intersectionality and emotion: Theorizing complex embodiment of Latinas with learning disabilities learning mathAmerican Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Denver, CO
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2024
Cross-disciplinary collaborative efforts to advance equity in mental healthNational Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA
I welcome inquiries from prospective collaborators, journalists, educators, and students. I am particularly glad to connect with people working on neurodivergent education, inclusive pedagogy, and teacher preparation.
Institutional address
Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA
CV
Available upon request.