The Autistic Collaboration Trust in collaboration with S23M Healthcare Solutions is offering in-depth education in the neurodiversity paradigm, intersectionality, the neurodiversity movement, and Autistic culture based on our unique database of lived experiences.
- Scheduled courses → Register
- Active courses → Access workspace
- Ended courses → View outcomes
To keep informed about our schedule of upcoming courses, you can subscribe to the AutCollab Education Newsletter.
In one of our recent education workshops community members and clinicians concluded:
Your own quality of life as a service provider will improve if you fight for systemic changes. Advocate for the wellbeing of neurodivergent patients, and we will also support your fight for better working conditions. We need systemic change. We are all in this together – neurodivergent patients and medical professionals. Health sector reform is needed. We can jointly gather data and insights from all sides, and jointly engage with governing bodies who don’t have the capability of doing transdisciplinary grassroots research.
The objectives of the Autistic and neurodiversity civil rights movements overlap significantly with the interests of those who advocate for greater levels of cultural and psychological safety in the workplace and in society in general. In the workplace the topics of cultural and psychological safety are relevant to all industries and sectors.
Committed allies of the neurodiversity movement such as Dr. Zoe Raos (Te Āti Awa), a gastroenterologist in Waitematā, Tāmaki Makaurau, are starting to speak up about the lack of cultural and psychological safety for Autistic patients and colleagues.
Education on these topics is essential for addressing entrenched problems of lacking cultural and psychological safety in the workplace, and corresponding problems of lacking cultural and psychological safety in local communities. For systematic education, we are curating timeless concepts for nurturing and describing ecologies of care.
The AutCollab Education Team
- Jorn Bettin, Aotearoa New Zealand
- Dr Juanita Fernando, Australia
- Christyanne Gaspar, United States
- Jolene Stockman, Aotearoa New Zealand
- Brittney Geary, United States
We offer professional education courses of varying lengths that can be delivered on-site, online, or in mixed formats, including self-paced learning modules, interactive lectures and workshops, and facilitated asynchronous workshops and Q&A sessions via suitable online tools.
All our education courses are tailored for specific audiences:
- In-depth education for healthcare professionals
- In-depth education for teachers, education professionals, and parents of school age children
- Introductory courses for professionals in other industries
All our education courses are based on Autistic lived experiences and on our intersectional participatory research, very different from education about neurodiversity in the language of the pathology paradigm – i.e. Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and other pervasive developmental disorders, which frames neurodivergent people from an external perspective, in terms of deficits relative to the current neuronormative culture, perhaps with a few special splinter skills thrown in for Feel Good Effect.
The course content was excellent. It provided a really comprehensive introduction to the wider cultural and political context which impact on neurodivergent experience. The written/video materials were excellent and it was helpful to be able to review these well in advance. I think the group discussion was extremely useful as we were able to share views and lived experience.
Amber Lane, NHS, Physiotherapist, UK
Informative and tied all of my focused interests (Neurodiversity, anthropology) together. Would love to learn more!
Brittney Geary, School Psychologist, USA
The course provided a really comprehensive introduction to the wider cultural and political context which impact on neurodivergent experience. The written/video materials were excellent and it was helpful to be able to review these well in advance. I think the group discussion was extremely useful as we were able to share views and lived experience.
Participant feedback on the delivery format of our courses
Dr. B. Educated – Courses
The neurodiversity paradigm and intersectionality
Education about the neurodiversity paradigm is not the same as education about neurodiversity. It answers an important question:
How does the mindset and language of the new paradigm differ from the language in the old paradigm?
This course is an interactive “deep dive” into neurodiversity and autistic culture. It is creative, collaborative, and goes beyond the usual medical and workplace neurodiversity ideas. Very refreshing to take part in CPD catering to different learning and communication styles. It was the most fun I’ve had in CPD this year! The course book is beautiful.
Dr Sarah Bernard FRACP, Australia
I recommend this course as a good start for professionals who are not yet familiar with the neurodiversity paradigm.
Marie Manalili, Speech/Language Pathologist, Philippines
Topics:
- Motivation
- Terminology
- The social model of disability
- Dimensions of divergence from neuronormativity
- Intersectionality
- The communal definition of Autistic ways of being / Takiwātanga
- Anthropological background
- Exposing the cultural bias of normality
- Transdisciplinary understanding of human learning and wellbeing
- The connection between neurodiversity and creativity
- Ableism and lived experience
- Frequently asked questions
The neurodiversity movement
Education about the neurodiversity movement builds on the neurodiversity paradigm. It answers three important questions:
- Why is there an urgent need for a paradigm shift?
- Who is involved in the shift?
- Who must learn from the neurodiversity movement?
Topics:
- Historic background
- Cultural bias against creativity, critical thinking and transdisciplinary collaboration
- Behaviourism in parenting, education, workplaces, economics, and the sciences
- Disability in a sick society
- Cultural safety and the human rights perspective
- Psychological safety
- Autistic communities
- Towards comprehensive bans of conversion therapies
- Overcoming cultural inertia in a time of exponential change
- Design BY and WITH neurodivergent people
- Advice process
- Introduction to Open Space as a transformational tool
- Guidance for making good use of Open Space
- Critical thinking tools for creative experimentation
Autistic culture and lived experience
Education about Autistic culture builds on the results of the neurodiversity movement. It answers three important questions:
- What is Autistic culture?
- How does it relate to other cultures?
- How does it relate to the neurodiversity movement?
Topics:
- Autistic language
- Learning without imitation
- Autistic collaboration
- Competency networks
- Minimising misunderstandings
- Exposing social injustice
- Raising healthy children
- Creating thriving communities
- Towards mutual understanding and a better world
- Difference drives humanity forward
- Autistic clinicians, nurses, social workers, lawyers, accountants, scientists of all stripes, mathematicians, artists, musicians, engineers, and entrepreneurs
- Deep innovation
- Evolutionary design
Inquiry
Via our core team of neurodivergent educators and our extended global network we can delivery professional education in all time zones, and we have the capacity to support large numbers of learners in parallel.
Organisations that are committed to providing a genuinely inclusive and culturally and psychologically safe environment for staff / patients / whānau / families / customers /suppliers can inquire about available education courses and delivery formats via the the form below.
Dr. B. Educated – Research
Feeling Safe – Survey
This 5 minute anonymous survey (fourteen questions) is conducted by the Autistic Collaboration Trust and is sponsored by S23M.
Feeling Safe Growing Up – Survey
This 5 minute anonymous survey (fifteen questions) is conducted by the Autistic Collaboration Trust and is sponsored by S23M.
Intersectional Safety – Experience Reports
This research programme depends on the breadth and depth of lived Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent experience that we can draw on. Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent and marginalised people are invited to contribute their lived experience.
Safety in Healthcare – Experience Reports
We invite everyone – including you, whether neuronormative or neurodivergent, to support our education efforts with reports of your lived experience in healthcare settings. As needed you can remain entirely anonymous to protect yourself from further harm.
Inclusive Communication in Healthcare
Neurodivergent and otherwise marginalised people often have specific communication preferences, and in some cases, are only able to communicate in one or two specific modalities. In this research project we are collecting examples of both inclusive and marginalising forms of interactions encountered in healthcare settings. You are invited to contribute both negative and positive scenarios, comparing scenarios that you had hoped for or expected with the scenarios that you actually encountered.
Safety in the Workplace – Survey
S23M is maintaining a unique global database of anonymous baseline data on psychological safety in the workplace via an ongoing online survey. The data is of particular interest for neurodivergent people and other marginalised groups who are experiencing bullying and more or less subtle forms of discrimination at work. You can contribute to this important ongoing research by participating in a 3 minute survey, and by encouraging your friends to participate.
Background
Discrimination against Autistic people is comparable to the level of discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people 50 years ago. The pathologisation of Autistic ways of being has led to the myths and the pseudo-science that powers the autism industrial complex.