Description
One of the primary drivers in the inclusion of neurodiverse students and staff is that in an ideal world their study and work environment is designed in such an inclusive way that no special allowances are needed and that they are just seen as part of the normal variation in human brains. (Or in engineering terms: a population with a normalized standard deviation of 0.5.) A utopia of a truly inclusive and healthy work environment.However, generally inclusion does not work like this yet today. The Neurodiverse often first have to run into problems, then get a formal diagnosis (label), and subsequently have to “come out” as neurodivergent in order to convince the rest of the (neurotypical) world they need a more inclusive environment in order to continue to function or worse they need (expensive) individual reasonable adjustments. As a result of this lack of inclusiveness the number of neurodiverse students and staff in academia needing additional support is on the rise and the availability of such support and the willingness of organisations to recognise these support needs is under considerable strain.
In this talk Gillian Saunders-Smits (herself neurodivergent) will talk about the need to be more inclusive in education and work environments in the first instance, why academia needs to be more inclusive from the get-go and what its long term benefits are for all.
| Period | 15 Mar 2023 |
|---|---|
| Held at | SEFI - European Society for Engineering Education, Belgium |
| Degree of Recognition | International |
Keywords
- Neurodiversity
- Inclusion
- Engineering Education