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Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often receive services from a variety of professionals. However, not all providers receive adequate training in ASD. The Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program includes a core competency of increasing knowledge about neurodevelopmental and related disabilities. This study attempted to assess trainees’ ASD knowledge and self-reported confidence in working with individuals with ASD and sought to understand if training through the LEND program increases these competencies. Additionally, the purpose of this study is to determine factors that predict ASD knowledge and self-reported confidence in providing services to this population, specifically in an interdisciplinary trainee sample.

Participants were 170 interdisciplinary LEND trainees during the 2017–2018 academic year. Participants across the USA completed online pre- and posttraining surveys. The survey included demographics, ASD knowledge, questions assessing training experiences, perceived ASD knowledge and self-reported confidence.

A one-way analysis of variance determined that there was a statistically significant difference in measured ASD knowledge across disciplines F(7, 148) = 5.151, p < .001. Clinical trainees (e.g. psychology, pediatrics and speech) exhibited more measured ASD knowledge than nonclinical trainees (e.g. neuroscience, legal). Additionally, training experiences, self-reported confidence and perceived ASD knowledge were predictors of measured ASD knowledge. Moreover, trainees increased their measured ASD knowledge, self-reported confidence and had more experiences with individuals who have ASD at the end of the training year.

These findings suggest that the LEND program may assist in the preparation of professionals to work with individuals with ASD. Training opportunities, including educational and practical experience, to train interdisciplinary providers who will work with individuals with ASD are advised.

The purpose of this study is to understand user perceptions and misconceptions regarding security tools. Security and privacy-preserving tools (for brevity, the authors term them as “security tools” in this paper, unless otherwise specified) are designed to protect the security and privacy of people in the digital environment. However, inappropriate use of these tools can lead to unexpected consequences that are preventable. Hence, it is significant to examine why users do not understand the security tools.

The authors conducted a qualitative study with 40 participants in the USA to investigate the prevalent misconceptions of people regarding security tools, their perceptions of data access and the corresponding impact on their usage behavior and data protection strategies.

While security vulnerabilities are often rooted in people’s internet usage behavior, this study examined user’s mental models of the internet and unpacked how the misconceptions about security tools relate to those mental models.

Based on the findings, this study offers recommendations highlighting the design aspects of security tools that need careful attention from researchers and industry practitioners, to alleviate users’ misconceptions and provide them with accurate conceptual models toward the desired use of security tools.