Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2022

The University of Exeter is celebrating neurodiversity! As part of Neurodiversity Celebration Week, the University of Exeter has organised a 2-day conference that aims to celebrate all types of neurodivergence. We have planned a series of events that will take place of Monday 21st March 2022 and Wednesday 23rd March 2022. We will also be running a stall in the Forum on Friday 25th March 2022 from 1-2pm where you can come and talk to neurodivergent staff and students and find out from AccessAbility staff what support is available.
The conference-style events are for a general public audience and so we invite anyone to attend. Our aim is to showcase neurodivergent researchers and students. We also want this to be a learning opportunity - how can we create educational environments that are neurodivergent-friendly?

About neurodiversity

Neurodiversity denotes a natural variation in cognitive functioning and includes many non-dominant neurotypes such as autism, ADHD/ADD, Dyslexia, OCD, and Dyspraxia. Positive neurodiversity perspectives value and cherish such variation in cognitive functioning, and do not see it as a marker of negative difference.

Some definitions

Neurodivergence: brains that function and experience the world in ways different to the dominant, ‘neurotypical’, brain
Neurotypicality: the dominant neurotype – previously considered to be the ‘standard’ brain
Neurominority: a group that shares the same divergence

Neurodiverse or Neurodivergent? Neurodiverse or Neurodivergent? It’s more than just grammar – DART (ed.ac.uk)

Find out more about the history of Neurodiversity Celebration Week: Neurodiversity Celebration Week (neurodiversityweek.com)

Conference Programme

UPDATE - RECORDINGS OF CONFERENCE PROGRAMME NOW AVAILABLE:

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UPDATE - NEW TEAMS SITE GOES LIVE:

The Exeter Disabled and Chronically Ill Network has created a new Teams site where anyone interested in neurodiversity can come together to share ideas, projects and resources. Request to join here: Join new Teams site

Monday 21 March 2022

Keynote no. 1 - Dr Chloe Farahar (12:30 – 13:15 GMT)

Dr Chloe Farahar, the founder of Aucademy (an educative platform for anyone to learn about Autistic experience) will give a talk about fostering a positive Autistic identity and increasing understanding of Autistic experience (commonly misrepresented as a continuum). Chloe will also talk to us about common myths about autism in the general narrative.

Panel discussion (13:15 – 14:00 GMT)

At the end of the talk, students from University of Exeter will join Dr Chloe for a panel discussion. Students will share their experiences in HE and will take questions from the audience.

Initiatives across the University (15:00 – 17:00 GMT)

Following the keynote and panel, we will showcase some of the initiatives across the University that are aiming to improve neurodivergent students’ experiences of Higher Education.

15:00-16:00: Dr. Ioanna Kapantai (Psychology) will discuss progress on an Education Incubator project she has received to examine ways in which we can improve neurodivergent students’ experiences in HE

16:00-17:00: Dr. Layal Hakim (Mathematics) will discuss her project that was also funded by the Education Incubator on Designing Inclusive Transition to the University

Wednesday 23 March 2022

Early Career Researcher Talks (11:00 – 13:00 GMT)

During our first session on Wednesday, we hope to showcase early career researchers who are neurodivergent or who work on neurodiversity. Information on speakers to follow.

Keynote no. 2 - Dr Steven Kapp (14:30 – 15:30 GMT)

For our second keynote, Dr. Steven Kapp, a Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, will present his research about Autistic people from a social justice perspective (14:30-15:15 GMT). The audience will be able to pose their question in a Q&A during the talk (15:15-15:30 GMT).

REGISTER HERE and we will send you an email with a zoom link and details on how to access prior to the event: Eventbrite

Other Events, Activities and Resources

Friday 25 March 2022

Stall in the Forum (13:00 – 14:00 GMT)

Come and talk to neurodivergent staff and students and find out from AccessAbility staff what support is available.

Podcast

Hear University of Exeter's Kelly Preece (R, D and the In-betweens) talking to Dr. Jane May Morrison and Dr. Edward Mills about being a neurodivergent PGR in honour of Neurodiversity Celebration Week! Being a neurodivergent PGR (podbean.com)

Reading recommendations

Find a list of autism positive books recommended by The Autistic Advocate here: Recommendations of Autism Positve Books For You to Read (theautisticadvocate.com)

Find comics about living with ADHD: adhd-alien.com – Comics about the daily struggle with ADHD

Blog and video recommendations

Find a list of blogs by Actually Autistic bloggers here: Actually Autistic Blogs List – A list of blogs by Actually Autistic bloggers (wordpress.com)

Find YouTube videos about ADHD: How to ADHD - YouTube

External events during Neurodiversity Celebration Week

Find a packed schedule of free online events run by the Neurodiversity Celebration Week organisation here 2022 Events Schedule | Neurodiversity Week

Find details and register for the free panel event "Celebrating Neurodiversity in the Workplace" run by Business Disability Forum (University of Exeter is a member of BDF) here Celebrating Neurodiversity in the Workplace webinar - Business Disability Forum

Celebrating diversity in employment

Click here for information on careers support for neurodivergent students