Understanding Autism

The Autism Friendly University team are proud to present a series of events that will be taking place from January to April of 2022. Our team is working towards the creation of a university culture that supports, champions, and celebrates autistic people, and we hope that these events will contribute towards a broader understanding of autism for our students and staff. We invite you to join us in our mission to raise awareness and understanding of autism across the university, and to help us move towards a culture that celebrates difference.

You are invited to join us in our first event of the year, where we will learn about Project SEARCH from Angie Black. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published new data that shows just 22% of autistic adults are in any kind of employment. This is a shocking figure, and the percentage is even lower for people with learning disabilities. Project Search is a one-year transformational work experience programme designed to support young adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to learn the skills required to get and keep a job. It began in 1996 in Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and is now changing lives in over five hundred sites around the world. This includes seventeen in Scotland, two of which are in Glasgow. Project Search is both inspirational and aspirational. It changes the lives of not only the participants, but often also the staff who are involved. We hope you will join us in learning more about it.

This is the first of a series of events to raise awareness about autism under the Autism Friendly University Project.

Upcoming Events:

23/02/2022- Dr. Szu-Ching Lu is a Hawthorne Fellow in Autism innovation, and she works in a research laboratory at Strathclyde. In her talk, she will discuss the contributions that her team are making in understanding and supporting autism through research.

09/03/2022- Anna Selwood is a Senior Careers Consultant in the Careers and Employability Service at Strathclyde. In her event, she will speak about how the Careers Service at Strathclyde University supports autistic students and graduates.

23/03/2022- Gillian McConnell is a Teaching Fellow for the Masters in Autism Programme, and the Course Leader for the full time MSc and part time Med in Autism Studies. She will be talking about the autism courses in her event, and some of her current and/or former students will also be joining us to speak about their studies and planned dissertations.

13/04/2022- Chris McKenzie is a Disability and Wellbeing Manager in the Disability Service at Strathclyde. In his talk, he will be discussing how the service supports autistic students and staff.