Understanding Autism with the National Autistic Society

We are pleased to offer 15 FREE places to supervisors in the SUPER community to attend an Autism and SPELL in Higher Education online course led by the National Autistic Society on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 October, 9.30 am to 11.00 am and 1.00 pm to 2.30 pm BST daily.

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability which affects how people communicate and interact with the world. At least 1 in 100 people are on the autism spectrum, with varying needs from 24-hour care to needing clearer communication and a little longer to do things. It is important to provide adequate support to university students with autism as they experience significant challenges and more mental health difficulties than non-autistic students (https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10803-018-3741-4.pdf).

A NERC-funded project, Enabling NeuroDiverse Inclusive Science Careers (ENDISC), found that the most significant barrier to the inclusion of neurodivergent ECRs is the academic workplace culture, which lacks understanding of, and support for, neurodivergent scientists. Of the ECRs based in natural and environmental sciences surveyed, 37% had considered leaving academia, and 73% had not requested adjustments due to the workplace culture. (https://equatescotland.org.uk/enabling-neurodiverse-inclusive-scientific-careers-research). Therefore, it is important that we are proactive in understanding and providing an autism-friendly space for researchers.

This course will provide an introduction to autism and SPELL, a framework for understanding and responding to autistic people’s needs. Content will cover how autism affects lives (social communication and interaction, sensory processing, information processing), causes of anxiety and stress, what happens at university for autistic students, and how to use the SPELL framework to develop better practice, adapt your environment to be more autism-friendly, and use evidence-based strategies to support autistic adults at university.

Find out more and sign up here. Please note that if we receive more applications than we have spaces, we will endeavour to create an illustrative group of the SUPER community so we can ensure representation across institutions.

Read more about the free training courses, events, and opportunities SUPER will be hosting as a result of receiving the NERC under its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) CDT/DTP Flexible Funding Award 2022 here.