2022 Presentations

This drawing workshop investigates how drawing can show us how we constantly are involved in each other's lives and spheres.

This workshop is part of my artistic research project, which uses illustration as a dialogue tool to create drawings that can create various expressions of human interactions to create more awareness and understanding between the neurodiverse and neurotypical people.

The workshop will consist of exercises like blind drawing, making portraits of each other without direct eye contact, and drawing after verbal descriptions and music.

22% of autistic adults are employed - compared to 79% of the general population. Through the lens of interdependence, we will examine the key problems in securing jobs and coping in the workplace. We believe the key to success is knowing our rights, self advocacy, and most importantly, striking a balance between the independence of working, and utilising support - i.e. becoming interdependent.

Our workshop will outline what interdependence means before delving into Autism, unemployment, and your rights. We will cover applications, interview adjustments, and the formal support available when at work, before focusing on adjustments your employer can provide. We will also cover personal coping strategies for managing within the workplace.

Finally, we will guide you through creating a simple workplace adjustments passport that can be shared with your colleagues and/or managers. We will also provide a more comprehensive ‘interdependence at work’ toolkit with resources for you to use.

Psychology-led autism research has mostly focused on what is ‘wrong’ with autistic people. This negative focus has led to autistic experience being reduced to a list of impairments, without understanding the whole person. However, autism can also be understood as a set of ‘character strengths’: traits, such as honesty, that align with personal core beliefs. Autism can be seen as a different value system.

In this presentation, I will share the findings from my Master’s research into character strengths of autistic adults in the UK. I will introduce the topic by providing history of the Values In Action (VIA) character strengths questionnaire. I will then present the character strengths profile for participants of my research, and discuss how it connects with autistic traits. Finally, I will share how to identify your ‘go-to’ character strengths, and how you can apply this knowledge in practice to promote your wellbeing.

Autistic Doctors International (ADI) is a neurodiversity-affirmative peer support and advocacy organisation for medical doctors identifying as autistic. We are also active in research, education and training.

This talk will report on current ADI research, publications and collaborations aimed at improving healthcare services for autistic people. Projects with the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons will be discussed, along with research projects in General Practice, including an autism training initiative for GPs.

Autistic doctors are in a unique position to educate colleagues and improve services from the inside. We illustrate healthy interdependence with our highly valued peer support and we model the benefits of open communication between staff, services and users. When we talk about our own barriers to healthcare, our fellow professionals realise that this is a huge issue for autistic people. If we can’t access care, who can?

• The autism employment gap
• Challenges autistic job seekers face
• Autism/neurodiversity - new on the D&I agenda
• How employers benefit from neurodiversity
• Case studies (auticon, EY, Auto Trader, Deutsche Bank, et al.)
• The recruitment landscape (job boards and when to avoid them, wording in job adverts, interviews and reasonable adjustments, behaviours of recruitment agencies)
• Disclosing your diagnosis
• Job search support (charities, governmental, employment programmes, specialist agencies, local recruitment agencies, Access to Work)
• In work support (reasonable adjustments, workplace adjustments, assistive technology, job coaches, awareness training for employers)
• Key resources print out for attendees to take home
• Q&A (if enough time)

Observation of child / parent play can often be used by social workers and clinicians in ways that may lead to life changing decisions. However, we know almost nothing about how autistic parents interact with their children, nor how this is interpreted by practitioners.

As an autistic parent myself I have been criticised by professionals who viewed my play with my own autistic children as being strange or not play at all.

My lecture will examine the pitfalls and negative outcomes of viewing autistic play through a neuronormative lens, share what I’ve learnt so far from autistic parents that I’ve interviewed and reflect upon what this means for us as a community.

Working together with autistic parents I believe we can go some way to further understanding of this underrepresented group and make a positive change to the day to day realities of accessing services and receiving support.