Well, first of all, a huge thank you to all those who came to our first PRO Autism event last week (16th June 2017) and made it such a success! We had over 70 people with us in the morning and a further 55 watching online as well!
The morning keynotes offered some really interesting food for thought – with Gill Loomes getting the ball rolling by outlining the need for autistic role models & visibility as central to inclusion in the workplace. Building on the ideas of Janine Booth’s brilliant poem, Manifesto from Behind the Mask, she encouraged us to think differently and celebrate difference. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hACRNvKqggk[/youtube]Gill will also be offering some additional points in her own blog post on this – coming soon!
We were delighted also to have Cheryl Winter from Genius Within share a case study where attitudes were changed in one workplace with very positive results. One of the highlights for me, however, was having Helen Attwood and Hannah Purnell talk about their firsthand experiences of working and the difference that relatively small adjustments can make. They articulated so well the advantages of neurodivergence in the workplace and how this can be an advantage that ought to be celebrated! Finally, Ramsay Taylor from United Response offered insight into some of the supported employment provision that is available and indicated the usefulness of BASE website. All of these keynote talks will be available on our YouTube channel soon.
The afternoon was, again, so useful but this time called on the expertise of those of us attending. Workshops covered challenges and solutions related to: disclosure, CV/applications, physical workplace adjustments, and social/emotional workplace adjustments. It was a privilege to facilitate some of these workshops and some of what was shared was so insightful – we can’t wait to start collating this information in order to share it with you soon!
To round off the day, we gathered some information about what people considered the priorities for the future to be. Some of the things suggested can be accessed on our Padlet page but for now here are just four of the main themes:
- Greater collaboration / coordination between university careers, disability, employment services, Dep for Work & Pension, local authority.
- More autism training in work to foster acceptance / help support individuals (not just know the bare facts gained from autism awareness sessions)
- Identify success stories and promote these
- Reach out to employers to be involved in identifying solutions
Well, that gives us something to think about! We will be making use of all of what people contributed last Friday to identify some practical and achievable goals for the next few months and will be in touch with you again soon!