Building Educational and Healthcare Spaces of Empowerment and Inclusion for Autistic and Neurodivergent Individuals

Abstract: Neurodiversity, the diversity of the human mind and the variation of neurocognitive functioning, is a paradigm that underscores the complexities of navigating healthcare and educational spaces. Many neurodiverse individuals continue to encounter forms of oppression and violence, including institutional, epistemic, and interpersonal, with regards to the way they embody themselves. In this workshop, we will explore ethical and pedagogical questions of fully respecting and treating neurodiverse individuals as knowers and co-creators in healthcare and educational spaces. We will focus on medical and graduate student education, medical settings, and workplace environments. This discussion includes an Autistic English graduate student, a lawyer-ethicist, a lawyer-humanist, and an Autistic psychologist. The first portion will be two flash presentations about neurodiversity in medical school and graduate education, followed by a brainstorm and crowdsource of best practices in healthcare spaces. The second portion will be two flash presentations: One will be on community engaged research and participatory care with a special emphasis on trauma informed care. The second will be a brief introduction on how to account for Autistic experience in research and in workplace environments through the lens of phenomenology and narrative-based approaches. The third part will be a flash presentation and discussion about masking, a phenomenon when an Autist camouflages or compensates for Autistic traits to neuro-conform and avoid detection as disabled. Ultimately, this workshop will be a transformative space for folks to reflect on their practice and to reinvent their own approaches to disability, Autism, and neurodiversity in daily life.

Keywords: Autism and Neurodiversity, Community-engaged Care, Bioethics and Medical Education