Description
Ausome Autism Conference is Ireland’s FIRST EVER all-autistic Conference. Our ausome autism conference has been organised by Autistic trainers. All of our nine speakers on the day are Autistic themselves. Each speaker will offer insights and ideas under the theme “Bridging the Gap”.
It promises to be an inspiring, thought-provoking and insightful event giving attendees a unique opportunity to learn about Autism from the perspective of Autistic Persons. Many autism conferences do not include any Autistic speakers. If they do it’s often in a tokenistic way where the voices of the Autistic speakers are often drowned out by professionals and autism “experts” who contradict or dilute the message of the Autistic speaker. AUsome Conference was created to address this.
Most of the understanding about autism has come from the external view with professionals making assumptions about what is going on inside the Autistic person. Autistic people suffer from all of the ignorance and inaccurate assumptions. Parents of Autistic children also suffer because of this ignorance. Schools, practitioners and other professionals often act on this misinformation and everyone misses out unfortunately.
Speakers include:
- Opening Address: Adam Harris (asiam.ie)
- Dean Beadle
- Stiof MacAmhalghaidh
- Ann Harber
- Fiona Quinn,
- Lei Crowe
- Brian Irwin
Her motivation to organise the conference is for others like her to be understood – not fixed – and to change people’s perception of autism.
There are enough of us here, we’ve got a lot to say and we need to be listened to. We’re excluded from a lot of research and reports so it’s time to open the conversation and move away from this “pretend inclusion” which is basically depriving us of our human rights.
The narrative around autism is largely controlled by national charities and professionals.
Autistic people themselves are excluded from the conversations and decision making process on a local and national level. AUsome Autism Conference will give us a much needed platform to be heard, to start a much needed conversation.