Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire

A 25-item self-report questionnaire developed by Hull, Mandy, Lai, Baron-Cohen and colleagues (2019) for adults to self-assess autistic masking (camouflaging) behaviours. Items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale (e.g., "In social situations, I feel like I am pretending to be normal"). The CAT-Q is well-cited and widely used in autism research, but critiques — including the participants in Rudberg Selin et al. (2026) — note that its Likert-scale design, abstract social-interaction framing, and internal-consistency items can themselves pose accessibility barriers for the autistic adults it is meant to measure. For accessibility practitioners designing related instruments, the CAT-Q illustrates both the value and the methodological risks of formalising deeply context-dependent experience.