The Neurodiverse Museum Conference 2024

hello everybody okay hi everybody and welcome to our very first inaugural conference um for the neurodiverse museum people will be

continuing to join I think throughout this first session um there were an awful lot of people we booked on to this session we had over 200 I suspect some people will want to just watch the

recording and people will drop in an out throughout the day which is absolutely fine whatever works for you as well um but as a result you will see there's a lot of people in the room um if you find

it easier you can change your view so it's just speak of view um so you can just see that one um one person who's speaking at the time um please bear with

us um because there are a lot of people here we'll do our best to manage everything and manage the tech um any issues at all please drop it into the chat um so my first session um this

morning is to kind of introduce you all go through some housekeeping make sure that everybody's happy and content with what we're doing today um and first of all it is just brilliant to see

everybody um and to see how needed um this kind of work is um and that you're all here um to to move things along and we're really excited the neod diversity

Museum to be able to deliver this um we're currently not funded we're um working very much in kind of voluntary capacity to make sure that this um is

progressed further and we feel very passionately about it and if you are able to share anything about today on uh

X you can use the hashtag ND museums 24 capital letters n d and M and we'll drop that into the chat um please do share so just a bit of housekeeping first um

if everybody could remember to have their audio off that would be amazing um and then if you prefer not to be en Vision that is absolutely fine um we are

recording so if any stage you are on vision and you don't want to be just take that off um use the chat function please at any stage you want to share anything whether it be thoughts whether

it be questions for any of our speakers whether it be anything that's um an issue or that you need support on just drop it into the chat and also feel free to just introduce yourselves in there so

that we can have a really clear understanding of the different people that are working in this area or wanting to work in this area and very happy that you can then be able to discuss with each other and particularly if there's

any kind of um potential partnership or support opportunities in there um we do also have closed captions on so you can just click the three buttons and use

those um if that is something that's useful for you um obviously sometimes they don't show exactly what we're saying but I find them really useful and

um that functions there if you need or want it so I first of all wanted to give a little bit of a background an introduction to the neurodiverse museum what we do why we do it and how we've

got to the stage we are now um so I'm Justin Riley I'm one of the directors of the neurod diverse Museum and um Allison child and S all are here today who are

the other directors of the neurodiverse museum um and they're waving um and S is here as well they are in the background and we be delivering support as well and

S will be presenting with me later on um and really the kind of background of where we've got to has been quite um developmental over the last couple of

years I my day job is running another organization called sporting Heritage and um I'm also autistic um myself and as we were developing work I was

starting to realize that there wasn't an awful lot of support across the museum sector for neod Divergent people and we started to do some work ourselves and

got some funding from art fund to look at how could we develop that how could we understand more what was happening and what that demonstrated was that actually it wasn't just within the SP in Heritage sector but it was across

museums and the cultural sector more generally that there was a need for support and a need to kind of have a really clear progression of what should happen um so after that project we got

some funding from steps to sustainability project which is funded by the Heritage fund and that allowed us to develop the neurodiverse museum Network which a lot of you might be

involved in where we're able to support and discuss with each other and develop um a real kind of clear thinking of of where we need to go in terms of neurod Divergence going forward with museums um

and that project has allowed us also to create the neurodiverse museum as its own organization um so this is really our kind of starting point of saying okay we've we've now got some really clear

ideas and now the conference will help us to push and progress progress those further um but all of it can only work with the rest of the sector and we are so Keen to work with as many different

people as possible and to understand the work that's happening already to bring that together to share it and to shout about some of the brilliant work that's happening and then also ensure that the museum sector to properly start to

ensure they're Equitable for neurodivergent people and that's a long-term um development rather than kind of knee jerk reaction um so a

little bit later we'll go into the principles for museums and neurodiversity which have been developed by the neurodiverse museum and the network um and how they're there to

support the sector um and develop a real kind of clear understanding of how to do that and to support the sector to do it so we'll look at that later but the key focus is around three pillars and those

three pillars are across audience and audience access for museums they're around ensuring that collections are representative um and that neurod Divergent people see themselves within

Collections and lived experience is very much Central to that and within Workforce and volunteering um and that those three things all need to be supported and looked at together rather

than just a focus or a concentration on one particular area to ensure that um museums are Equitable for neurod Divergent people so the conference will

explore all of those three pillars as we go through um and we're trying to ensure that there's at this stage some case studies and some examples to help those

discussions um along but at any stage please drop information in there'll be things we've missed there will be things we haven't had time to um put into today's session or there'll be bits of velopment that we really want to work on

and the more information that we get from everybody the easier that makes our job in terms of the next um the next steps we also have another Network

meeting set up for later um in June I think which we'll share information about later on so first of all I want to try and bear with us as we go through

the tech but I want to try and launch a poll because what we want to see is why everybody's here why everybody wants to be part of session today kind of gather

a bit of information so that it helps us to see did we manage to deliver all of those things today and what else is SE to need and there'll be a few different sessions um where we'll do that after we've done this first poll I'll then go

through a brief agenda of what we're going to look at today so cross your fingers everybody see if it'll

launch okay so hopefully you know have uh very short um screen in front of you that says conference stter poll if you're able to answer those questions

that would be amazing I will give you a couple of minutes ah people are answering this is good e

another 30 seconds we're nearly all there okay I'm just gonna end the part oh I can see somebody else I'm gonna

wait okay I'm going to end the poll there we go um now I will share the results with you later where we look at as we manag to achieve what we thought

um but the key thing things um that are of interest for us is to work out you know exactly where different people are and are we delivering what you need um

so that's absolutely amazing thank you so much um for doing that for me um so to give you an idea of what we have coming up today um I wanted to give you

a really quick overview I know you have the agenda but um I thought it might be useful just to recap it so um Jill L um looms kin will be giving us the keynote

speech um in the next couple of minutes we're really excited to have Jo with us here today um Ben s and I will be discussing the principles of museums and neurodiversity we'll then have a break

we're trying to make sure there's plenty of breaks throughout the day um and please also take breaks whenever you need them then we'll have a selection of case studies which help to bring together where some of the sector is at

the moment and discuss some of the key issues around those three pillars um we'll have another break uh Q&A session this afternoon um which is an opportunity to discuss with people with

lived experience new Divergence um where the museum sector are at the moment what we feel we need to do going forward we do have some questions already that have come in through social media but if there's anything else that you want to

ask during that session again drop it into the chat we'll do our best to cover it then um another break and then there'll be a breakout session um just a half an hour breakout session latest

today where we will put people into small groups you are welcome not to participate that stay in the main room or participate in different ways or'll just be within those groups um and then we'll collect information again probably

through a poll it's quite difficult to do it with a really big room so we think that's probably going to be the easiest way um and then we'll have a short wrap-up session and we've got an end of

um session survey as well to find out if we have managed to um deliver what you need and what else we need to do because this is going to be a long process with lots of development developmental

opportunities needed so as we go through before I introduce speakers I will be putting up a slide for the recording so that we can um make sure we can see all where the different um sessions are so

I'm going to do that now trying to make my brain work in a two different way it's very interesting here we go so

um our next um session for the next half an hour is with our keynote speaker um and a short Q&A and this is Dr Jill l

Quinn I'm going to let Jill um introduce herself um and I'm really excited to hear more about what um what you're going to tell

us Jill and how we can learn more about what um what we do from what you do um and I will be off camera um but if at

any stage you need me I'm here thanks Jill thank you and hello everybody um thank you Justine and sah

and everyone um behind the neurodiverse museum for inviting me to speak today um it's hugely exciting um not least watching in the chat as everybody on the

call is introducing themselves and seeing um the vast breadth of experience and insight not only from across the

museum sector um and the the range of of museums and and um cultural representation that is there but also um

the amount of neurod Divergent representation that is present in this meeting is quite fabulous um brilliant to see in terms of representation and

Community Building um brilliant for me as as an autistic speaker because um I have to say that like all of us I find

these um these kinds of situation um not not the easiest particularly REM um particularly remote presentations and

I think um having this neurod Divergent um space uh feels very safe and very welcoming and I'm incredibly grateful

for that couple of um slight um apologies caveats before I start my speaking um before I start running my slides and the first one is that I have

my young cat in the room with me it's a it's um uh a sort of one of the curve balls of working from home I'm afraid um he's a bit on the Lively side sometimes

um has a tendency to do things like um Hur himself up Windows and things um I can't really do anything about that if I put him out of the room he's going to um

wi make his presence felt um and generally making Nuance of himself in a much more distracting way um I know some people find um cat spotting pet spotting

in do calls a bit of a bonus as it says in the chat some people don't and for those that don't I do apologize um also like a lot of us at the moment um I am

full of lury and so apologies and advance for um the nose blowing and whatever else happens um you know cold

wise um can't help it but um with all of that uh with all of that um said um yeah I'm delighted to be here and I am going

to start um sharing my slides um so I am jills Quinn and I've worked in the field I'm

an autistic person I've worked in the field of autism

advocacy for um roughly 20 years now um and that means that a lot of what I'm talking about is going to be right you

should be seeing my um my slides now um we can see them Jill brilliant thanks Justin so um I've been working in

the field of um of autism advocacy for as I say around H 20 years now um give

or take and um in terms of H individual um client crisis advocacy um in terms of um education including in the higher

education sector working in in the field of autism studies and also in the development of um peer support models

and peer communities for autistic people um which is an area of work that I am incredibly passionate about um I will say from the beginning that this means

that when I talk from my experience it means that I'm going to sound very autism heavy um of course I acknowledge that today we are talking about neurodiversity

which is more than more than just autism um it does tend to sometimes be mistakenly um kind of um used as a as a

synonym for autism um in a way that is of course problematic and I don't mean to do that it's just that that is where my experience comes from that's where I

speak from and I'm incredibly Keen to hear from other neurod Divergent people with with other kind of diagnostic labels but but that's not where I speak

from so what am I going to talk to us about today well I'm going to start by saying that I think I'm assuming that our purpose in coming together today is

that we have um we have a a range a huge diversity of experience of qualifications of expertise in terms of

um of our professional backgrounds um in terms of what we know about neurodiversity what we know about the museum sector and um the the sort the

cultural space that occupies and the the cultural work that that the sector does um and I think that we have I assume that we have kind of a shared Vision in

terms of um wanting to make the sector um more explicitly um welcoming um of neurod

Divergent people and represent ative of neurod Divergence and of um and acknowledging that as a society we are neurodiverse and that that should be

represented in our culture and our social shed language um I think that's probably what we're all trying to do and

what I am hopefully going to do is give us um some the beginnings of some language of of how we might articulate

that um in our in our advocacy work for this project um the different kinds of argument that we might use the different kinds of perspective that we might draw

on um so I'm going to do that by by addressing some of these issues that I've got on this summary slide here so what do we mean by neurodiversity I think this is going to be covered in a

lot more depth um further on during during the day today but I just want to start by kind of summarizing and showing that actually the term neurodiversity has lots of different meanings lots of

different uses um and how we can sort of think about those in our own advocacy um the social cultural importance of the museum sector now I'm

not going to I'm not going to dwell on that for too long because it's really not my area of expertise and I think there are people on this call and people who will be speaking later today who are

who are going to have um a lot more insight into that but I just want to kind of start by establishing that the museum sector is of sociocultural

importance in our in our society and our world and neurode Divergent people have a right to see ourselves represented in that and to be able to access that space

um so so I'm going to think about that I'm going think about sort of why the ne neurodiverse Museum some of the different arguments that we might use um

in advocating for our vision of a neurodiverse um a neurod Divergent um Museum sector um and I'm going to think about what we mean by advocacy and

advocating for the neurodiverse museum and at the end I'm going to give us some time to um to commit um to sort of three provocations to give us some thinking

time um in terms of what we can do as individuals and collectively um and then I'm going to move on to some questions questions and answers

um so um without further Ado let's move on so as I say this is a very brief summary um the the field of neurodiversity is

ever growing in fact it's growing kind of exponentially um excitingly I feel it's becoming um not only a word a concept of

theory but also um a movement um and and a politics um and it's really kind of having its moment uh which is super exciting um Judy singer who I'll talk

about in second who who coined the phrase um said that she felt that neurodiversity would be the um the last great um identity movement to come out

of the 20th century um and I think I think that's true but I think it's the beginnings of the 21st century where it's really beginning to have its kind of cultural moment um so we're living in

exciting times people and we're really at the Forefront um among ourselves of this work um it's something we're part of of and I for one I'm incredibly

excited about that so beginning to think about neurodiversity first of all it's a biological fact um it's often described

as as a belief a theory um an idea but actually neurodiversity is is simply a biological fact the human species is neurologically diverse and actually it

needs to be that's that's kind of one of the ways in which Evolution happens is through diversity so really in talking about neurodiversity we're actually just really

describing um a biological characteristic of our species um but beyond that neurodiversity has become um

a paradigm um a a way of describing um uh a way of kind of seeing the world and seeing it's it's become kind of a um a

shift um as I say in the slide from uh description of um characteristics such as my own sort of world of autism

as mental pathology towards a kind of describing us as um subjects as as kind of a part of of society um as an

identity an identity group um as you probably know the term was coined by Judy singer who's an Australian sociologist and who wrote her um being

ba dissertation around 1997 on the term uh neurodiversity um the article that I link to in the in the slides is a

guardian article on Judy singer and it's it's a really interesting read to find out more about where she was coming from kind of her history as a as a a child of

survivors of Holocaust and and what that sort of taught her in terms of identity and how she saw neurodiversity of really being um a political movement for for

people like herself and members of her family um it's a growing interdisciplinary academic field um so um to quote from from one of the the

sort of beginnings of one of the early sort of um uh authoritative textbooks on neurodiversity studies um it's a field

that is working at the crossroads between sociology critical psychology medical Humanities critical ability studies and critical autism studies and

sharing theoretical ground with critical race studies critical queer studies and we can really see that kind of a coming together of different disciplines

different social groups and um different kind of political movements which is something that I'll kind of reflect on when I think about about the work of

advocacy um and how advocacy relates to what we're trying to do in terms of the neurodiverse Museum it's a coming together uh an inherently

interdisciplinary and diverse field um it's also a political movement um possibly first and foremost it's concerned with identity work with with

building a community together again kind of a shared movement um a coming together of individuals who um who are kind of finding each other and sharing

experiences and building a kind of a momentum building a language to describe our experiences um one of the aspects of work that I'm involved in now is

providing um onetoone uh peer support um for adults who have been recently diagnosed with autism and the conversations that I have with people

with my clients routinely talk about um people feeling individuals feeling a sense of uh not uh not fitting in of of not kind of

understanding their sort of place in the world and then with their recognition and their diagnosis of of autism kind of finding a shared community and finding a

language to articulate their experiences and learning that they're not alone um it's a it's a process that is discussed by Nancy Batel in in the article that I

I link to there which is a case study of one young man who is who is diagnosed and goes through that identity process um the the building of of the political

movement of a community in a shared language is is a huge part of of what neurod diversity means um it's also been a concept that has been been challenged

um so the Orga article that I linked through from 2009 points out that there's perhaps a danger of um of the

language of neurodiversity kind of replacing what it um replacing what what it what it um care after the idea of of

kind of um the sort of the mental pathology the the psychologization um the pathologization

of um different uh neurological um different kind of ways of being different identities um and replacing that with simply a kind of a um a

cerebral understanding a way that kind of reduces people to their cerebral characteristics their their sort of neurological um identities um to the

exclusion of of kind of their other identities of the other aspects of what makes of what makes a person a person um so it's being kind of criticized in that way

um but all of this to say that neurodiversity is a is a multifaceted um phenomenon it's a growing phenomenon um it's a it's a

paradigm it's a political movement um it's something it's work that we're all involved in um and it's

exciting so moving on um this is this is my kind of T penth if you like this is how I describe um the the politics of neurodiversity so as I say the work that

I see us is involved in and I say that the politics of neurodiversity is not about arguing for um the place of neurod Divergence with within the physical and

social boundaries of the status quo it is the work of presenting a radical challenge to these boundaries not begging for room at the table but a full

on elbows out battle to shift the furniture and to make room it's a bold human assertion of a claim for space it necessarily disrupts things um it's not

about fitting us as Autistic or other neurod diverent people into the world as it currently is um begging for a place

arguing for our um legitimacy and our similarity to the neurological to the to the neurotypical majority um it's about

shifting that status quo and representing the diversity um of uh the the the human species and the world that

we live in um and obviously that includes um the the museum sector museums as cultural places

um so the museum sector the museum sector is a part of our social World it occupies a cultural place in our world and as such it's a place that neurod

Divergent people have a right to see ourselves um represented in and to to have a place in to be able to access um it's a sector that receives huge public

investment um 47.2 million pounds was awarded to museums by the itage fund between 2015 and

2023 almost 51 million pounds of um public money um over this eight-year period that is a lot of money um Arts

Council England invested more than 521 million pounds across um across aspect of the sector on average 65.1

million pounds per year um and the department what the government department for culture media and Sport um has also invested huge amounts in

Grants there so it's it it it's a lot of public money and and neurod Divergent people are members of that public we contribute in terms of of our taxes and

the work that we do um so we're involved in that too um the museum sector is used by millions and millions of people um

every year 12.5 million visits um to dcsm um dcms sponsor museums and galleries uh in

2023 although that's been um impacted by by the pandemic in recent years that's still a lot of people who who are using the sector a

neurod Divergent people have a right to be involved in that too um and yeah there's lots of Revenue there Revenue that comes from the museum

sector as well it's a part of the economy um it's a part of the of the the social fabric of the world that we live in um and my main point here is that

neurod Divergent people have a right to be part of that we contribute and we have a right to see ourselves represented and to be able to partake of this aspect of our social and and and

cultural World um so some of the thought some thoughts of mine um I think these are the things that you're going to be

discussing yourselves today um about why the neurodiverse museum and when I put together this slide I was thinking in terms of arguments that we might use in

our advocacy for a neur neurodiverse museum um these arguments are different types of argument they come from um

different um different subjectivities different um different backgrounds some are human rights based arguments some

are legal argument um some are um argument in terms of um uh the kind of economic and social

value of involving neurod Divergent people um in in the world in particularly in this instance in the um

in the neurodiverse in the museum sector um when I come to talk about advocacy shortly I'll I'll sort of describe how um part of part of our advocacy needs to be

understanding our audience and understanding where they're coming from and kind of tailoring our arguments um to to be most effective with our

audience so I've kind of structured um my thinking across the three strands um that the neurodiverse museum um is

concerned with that that Justine outlined um in her introduction um so thinking in terms of the workforce and by that of course I I include the masses

of volunteers who are involved um in the museum sector in the work of museums and several of whom I've seen her on today's

Court um so firstly there are legal responsibilities for employers um to um to make reasonable adjustments um for

neurod Divergent employees in the workplace and those are arguments that we can and should kind of employ in terms of um how individuals

um go about making um being being um included in the workplace um also when we're making um

adjustments for employees often there'll be parallels with with the um accessibility measures that should be made for for visitors and customers I think one of the things about these

three strands is that they are interr and interl sorry and if we um make uh improvements for one it's going to have

a spin-off into the other areas um um increased productivity is is the kind of argument that is often used when kind of trying to sell um the role of

neurod Divergent employees um in the workplace um that's one that obviously comes with its its fair share of um of kind of problems but it's an argument

that can be used in certain instances um to to some effect um neurod Divergent people make a cultural contribution and this includes

to the workforce um if museums are concerned with being representative of of neurod Divergence in their Collections and in the way that they um

design themselves then neurode Divergent employees can make it a contribution to that um through the lived experience um

also many um neurod Divergent employees in the museum sector are drawing on their own often lifelong special interests in the the kind of subjects

that the museum engages with um and that brings a particular depth and passion to their work um which can be fostered to

great effect um so moving on in terms of the collections in terms of seeing representation um and neurodiversity in collections this could this should be

seen as part of wide neurod Divergent citizenship um we um we should be seeing ourselves represented and and be able to

identify ourselves um in in what we see in museums as neurod diverged people too often one of the greatest um one of the greatest struggles that many of us have

had um as neurod divergent people has been in not seeing ourselves represented not not having a sense of um shared experience not knowing where our places

within Society this is something that the museum sector can really work and contribute to to tackling um and that in itself doesn't just benefit neurod

Divergent people it brings an added um sociological and anthropological nuance and richness to to the work of the museum itself it's it's simply better

scholarship it's more uh it's more nuanced and and richer scholarship um there's um there's an importance I

feel of the the nonverbal of the the kind of the object um the tactile the the um the the the concrete nature of of a lot

of um Museum collections that that can really I think be be kind of developed for um for engaging with members of of

neurode Divergent communities who don't perhaps communicate verbally I think that's a that's a massive area of kind of social inclusion that could be

developed um and also it's a it's a way of um including neurod Divergence and representing neurod Divergence in um collections is a way of building

dialogue with other sociopolitical minorities that are themselves beginning to be represented in museums and other social spaces I think it's important

where there is also where is not maybe a collection where there's not um where there's not that that um that fabric to

be to be included in collections that that in itself that absence is made explicit um as a as a kind of

representation of um of when neurod Divergent people have historically not being acknowledged through um in different areas of society I'm aware

that I um um that I am I only have a couple of uh minutes remaining before we can have a few minutes for for questions and answers so I'm going to leave that

slide there and I'm going to move on to thinking about advocacy the work that we are doing um what we're here to discuss and to begin is a form of advocacy um

advocacy in the sense of and taking action to create change and speaking truth to power museums themselves can be seen as locations of advocacy and

representation um of social advocacy that is concerned with the representation of of minorities and as such I think as people who are concerned with neurodiversity and the

neurodiversity movement we are standing on the shoulders of giants of other um social and political minorities who have

done this work um before us um in terms of how we go about that I think one of the things that um one of the things that I have learned

sometimes the hard way has been um about ta as I said before tailoring my arguments um to my audience I think that's where conversations like today

are incredibly important because we begin to learn the language of other people you were working with maybe people who come from different backgrounds who maybe we might assume

knowledge that that maybe is is lacking that we can then share we can um kind of uh find sort of meetings of the mind and

com Common Ground um sometimes we might need to argue um from a place that might not necessarily be um be our our kind of

what we feel like is our comfortable ground um I included the case there Brown against Board of Education which is the famous um American um court case

that that um desegregated uh American public schools which would be seen as a as a kind of a a step in terms of social justice and human rights but was

actually decided on the basis um of evidence of the psychological harm that segregation um was found to do um to to black children that um and to Children

of color and that might not seem like the most um the most kind of morally and ethically um powerful argument but it was an an argument that had power in

terms of um in terms of the the the people that were um that were involved in the actual process of desegregation

so it was an argument that was used um also in terms of advocacy we we need to part of the work that we are doing now in standing on the shoulders of giants

is building our own language um it was it was part of what Judy singer saw as kind of integral to coining the phrase neurod diversity um she hoped she might

somehow speed up the growth of neurodiversity into something Unstoppable she said we need an umbrella term for the movement we need a language

to be able to to advocate for ourselves as a movement and that's what I think work like today is doing um I am aware

that I am running out of time so um I think I'll just conclude by thinking that um the work of advocacy often complex um it often involves aiming for

the stars um in order that if we miss we'll reach the moon if we aim for the moon if we miss we'll land on the floor so we need to be aiming for the stars but at the same time we need to be

pragmatic we need to recognize that sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the good um sometimes we're offered um as as neurod divergent people were

offered measures such as quiet hours or or SE seate hours um access to to social spaces which might seem like half

measures might seem like not full inclusion and obviously it's not we want not what we want um as as kind of our end goal but it might be a step in the

right direction and it might be something that we that we can foster rather than taking the rather than kind of aiming for the perfect and um that

being the enemy of the goods um yeah I think I'm going to leave that there um hopefully I mean this is something that I could talk about a lot

as as um I'm super passionate about advocacy but I'm going to end with three provocations um things questions for you to answer um so what can you do in terms

of your own advocacy for the neurodiverse museum firstly to embed neurodiversity in your own practice ice secondly to embed neurodiversity in your

organization and thirdly to embed neurodiversity across the sector as a whole um I'm sorry that was rather rushed but I will leave that there thank

you justtin oh thank you so much Jill I mean there's just so much to discuss and some of the things that you talked about there and some of the quotes that you gave were really passionate and fitted

so much with what we're trying to achieve and I really love that you outlined the kind of investment that goes into the sector

and I suspect if we then look at how that is reflected across the specific investment that goes in for neurod Divergent audiences Workforce and

representation it would be you wouldn't even see it be infant tessal so um and that's something that we are definitely trying to work on so it it's amazing to hear you speak and about what we can do

and how we can shift and change things and I think our session in a moment the principles might help to carry on with the bit that you were just discussing and looking at um we're going to shorten

our session a little bit we wanted to just see if anybody had any quick questions now Jill will be with us later on um for the Q&A as well but if there was anything anyone wanted to drop in I

would take one question it's fine if not I'm just going back to look I think you might be all right Jill until this after thank you so much um I'll do the round

of applause myself um and yes the recording will be available later on um and we will share some of the links Jill in your slide um

with our email that goes out um afterwards thanks so thank you so much um I'm going to do a very quick as I said I would slides share before the

next session um and this is to support recording so our next session is looking

at the principles for museums and neurodiversity um and this is um work that the museums um and all of the various different people that have been

working with us in the network have been developing around how do we properly support the sector to change um I'm just going to share my presentation um for

this session bear with I've been watching Miranda too much recently um okay

and I'm just going to okay now I'm G to ask you um and S or

Al let me know can you see my speaker view or can you just see the slides I can see a speaker view Justin it's

fine here we go there we go everybody better yes okay yeah so brilliant thanks Al um so for the next um I'm gonna keep

an eye on time we are gonna have a break at quarter past 11 so for the next um 20 25 minutes we're just going to have a quick look at the principles for museums and neurodiversity some of you may have

seen these before we launched these a couple of months ago um they were a culmination of pulling together lots of different information that kind of is based on the

work that Jill has just been talking about that's looking at how do we make sure that we're properly discussing how the sector can change and shift for neurod Divergent audiences but but

rather than doing that in a kind of oh museums aren't doing what we need we need to you know they're not doing a good enough job but actually looking at it proactively and sensibly and thinking about well how do we make that change

happen how do we support that what are the training needs for for museums what are the skills and development needs that museums need to think about so that it's a properly supportive process that

helps real organizational change happen um rather than just what can sometimes happen within the museum sector where we get really interested in a specific kind

of area of work we do some really intensive work for a year or two and then that's forgotten we want to make sure that this activity is embedded within museums and that it is seen as

just something naturally and part of what museums do and the principles for museums and neurodiversity are very much part of that so um this is the

presentation between me um and sah um and I can't see my speak of view now so s if at any point I just keep going on

and I shouldn't be pop up in my screen tell me that um I need to stop um so what we're going to be covering today we're going to be looking at what the

results is what what are the principles for museums and neurodiversity we touch a little bit on what is neurodiversity and what does it mean to be neurod Divergent Jill's covered some of that already um and it's

something that we always just keep coming back to every time we run network meetings we asked to just re reiterate that at the beginning to support anybody that isn't comfortable with the

terminology that isn't aware of how that works um and just to keep remembering what we mean by that um then what do do we mean by adopting the principles what what does that actually mean to become

an organization who thinks that these are important and they're going to embed them and then a quick look at the five different principles and we will be sharing the slides and access to the

principles afterwards so what the resource is now I'm pretty sure Sur that this is

you but I can't see you in my screen to let me know whether it is or not on my notes it's you okay I'm going to carry on talking everybody

so um the digital resource is on our website you can download it it's got very clear information and what it does is try and support organizations from a

kind of Bas line of what it is to be in your a diverent friendly organization to a kind of what's next so what we're trying to do is not make this be a

really intimidating resource it's something that every organization can look at and think actually we could do that we can Implement these very early

stage activities and then also museums who are maybe a bit further on who are thinking actually we could do more than that can start to progress to the next kind of stages um it was created by the

neurodiversity museum working with um the Museum's a neurodiversity network and the input and support from all of the different organizations and individuals that were part of that

Network it was amazing and it's probably it's difficult to be really sure but it um probably half and half people who are new Divergent and people who are working within the sector or linked to the

sector who want to see this change happen um and it's very much around producing these guidelines that help to inform the development of practice um we

use the term Equity um and as you can see neuro inclusion rather than just inclusion we we feel that the term inclusion has sometimes allowed um some of the things

that Jill was talking about earlier um we'll do a quiet hour that'll be brilliant on the face if it seems okay but actually is that what neurod Divergent people find makes a museum

accessible does it actually further exclude neurod Divergent people because that quiet hour is probably not going to be quiet a lot of neurod Divergent people they particularly do not like a

very very quiet space they prefer some kind of noise um and is it actually saying well you can use our space during this time but the rest of the time it's not accessible to

you and that's not really what we're looking for we're looking for Equity that kind of consideration of how do we ensure that across those three pillars Workforce access and representation

we're thinking about that Equitable approach so the um the principles are all rooted within that

um so what does what is neurodiversity what's it mean to be neurod Divergent um so yeah approximately I know we asked you right at the beginning how many people do you think what is in the population in terms of neurod Divergent

people and the estimate at the moment is it's approximately one in five it's likely to be more um there is so limited research um in terms of neurod

Divergence and until recently a lot of um people that were actually looking at neurod Divergence were not neurod Divergent

themselves that shifting and changing um and some of the work that people like Jilla doing is is brilliant and starting to really inform how do we um properly

ensure we understand neurod Divergence in society and change things um Jill described it a little bit for us earlier on it's that natural um brains you know

it's it's part of it's part of humanity brains work differently and then neurod Divergent describes individuals um and the are very many different terms um

that support neurod Divergent um terminology some of them are listed there it's not all different all the different types of um terms that are in there and often there's a lot of

intersectionality um within neurod Divergence um and that's really important to understand um I'm conscious that there because I'm autistic there's

lots of focus on um for me that's the way that my brain works thinking about had a museum sport autistic people but I also have lots of people within my Wide Circle who are multiple neurod divergent

or different neuro diversion I'm always thinking how do we ensure that we make we're really thinking about all those different areas I don't think for example we properly consider how do we support dyslexic people within the

museum seor but actually that could be something that's a lot easy to think about it we need to be really good at starting to recognize if we're going to use the term neurod Divergent that

that's what we're talking about and it isn't talking just about one or two areas and that's something that as an organization we want to shift that forward and why we're hoping to try and um draw in additional funding so that we

can make that happen so this is definitely Sur so I'm just gonna hand over to you s

yeah um so yeah this will go back to some of the things that Jill and Justine have already spoken about um so before we go over specifically what each

principle actually is what do we mean by adopting them what does that look like um well it's important to preface

that adopting the principles is going to he going to look different for every organization and that it's primarily about

underpinning the thinking behind them uh in your development so it's about practicing intersectionality so having that

awareness that many people excluded from the museum sector because they're people of color they're from the lgbtq plus Community they're from workingclass

communities or they dis disabled for example can be and are also neurod Divergent people um and to reflect the

diverse nature and experiences of the neurod Divergent Community it's key to acknowledge and include these groups and those things are also key in

avoiding tokenism um in terms of equity versus inclusion and why we use that and the

principles we use um Equitable to establish that the work needed to be done must be fair and not discriminatory or ill

informed we feel that and work in the sector um that has been branded as inclusive has far too often been harmful

and misguided and um misses that lived experience voice um which is important in you know underpinning um the thinking behind the

principles um giving stuff a go is super important so if you try something and it isn't perfect you can learn from it and grow

um but you can't if you do nothing at all or you don't try anything if we're all collectively trying things out we can help one another and this is part of

why the network exists um you'll likely hear more about this later with um our care study speakers

but underpinning this work will benefit everyone um it's been proven that changes made to support n diverent people positively impact the majority um

creating environments in which people feel supported understood um and spaces which allow for flexibility and

effective transparent communication um will help everyone to thrive um and going back to slightly back to

intersectionality um n diversion people who face barriers to diagnosis um or those who simply don't want one or individuals who are unaware

of their divergencies or who feel uncomfortable identifying as such um

they if we begin to underpin this work and make um a approach change holistically those individuals also get

to be supported where they otherwise may not be um I think I'll pass on to Justine to go into the first

principle thanks s yeah just echoing that I think it's something that we've come across quite a lot in terms of that um understanding anticipatory

adjustments and making sure that um that's something that we just do because it benefits everybody um and it means people don't have to disclose their diagnosis or don't have to know

the Neo Divergence to be able to be supported um and it is again something which underpins uh how the principles work so the first principle is very much

around understanding neurodiversity and what it means to be neurod Divergent um we have found that um there is a lot of need across the sector and wider you'd

be amazed the amount of people that are asking us to support or deliver training um that have nothing to do with museums um or cultural sector

but really want to better understand the terminology lived experience how to properly consult and understand with um neurod Divergent audiences so this is a

key principle to what we're doing but it seems to be a key principle to what a lot of different organizations and sectors are trying to think about at the moment so the things that we really

focus on are is there a way to use language and learning resources that have been created already that can support your your work that are coming from the neurod Divergent community that

are from neurod Divergent voice um so that you can be sure that that is really clear lived experience um and it's really important that that happens

because we still see that there is a potential um issue around consultation happening with people who aren't neurod Divergent but informing neurod Divergent

activity um so potentially non- neurod Divergent parents of neurod Divergent children um clinicians professionals and practitioners who might have a great

deal of experience which is also valid but it isn't the same as neurod divergent um voice um and then could you better understand the context behind the social model of neuro of disability um

and where a neuro Divergence fits within that so we work on the social model of of disability and that the barriers are not the people themselves the barriers

are what Society is doing so in this context it's how museums are operating and how we can shift and change that um and then can you continue what you're doing now with the conference Museum um

neurodiversity Network how that can support you and how that can help you going further to understand more about what other organizations are doing um and to understand how you can shift and support your organization and your

individual practice in that way um so on to principal 2 s is this me or you I'm gonna keep going so princip it's

mine sorry I was on mute great um so principle two which is value neurod Divergent individuals of

experience in NE Divergent voice um which Justine has gone into a bit focuses on how you approach working with and involving neurod Divergent people in

activity and development and not only recog izing the unique skills and expertise andb people have and bring to

museums and our work but valuing them fairly so it focuses on adopting or nothing about us without us

approach um and nothing about us without us communicates that no policy work or action should be decided or developed without the direct inclusion and

participation of those who will be affected represented or engag Ed by that policy worker action it communicates the need and importance of self- advocacy

and live The Experience voice in leading change to ensure that uh Equitable Dynamic supportive and relevant work is being done while avoiding the

exploitation of those involved which does happen um and is happen happening across our

sector um so it's about thinking on how you build relationships and Partnerships with the Nar Divergent Community the Nar Divergent individuals in your

organization and Community are ideally positioned to inform your development and practice um and sometimes we can be eager to do so um

but we need to be careful in the ways we coordinate that to ensure that it's fair and that the work being that is been us to be done is reasonable in accordance

with its uh compensation whatever that may or may not be um so that's thinking about the emotional physical and mental labor

neurod Divergent individ individ individuals put into support development and how often with other specialized

topics this kind of work is considered consult consultancy which would be B accordingly um but it's often not

[Music] um yeah so it's about thinking about how you do that as an organization and what ways you might be able to compensate

individuals um it could be simple things um but it'll look different for every organization finally it's about acknowledging what um that assumptions

can do more harm than good and that no Divergent needs are and wants are varied and to understand them and make it easier for every everyone it's best not

to exclude our voices um so can you begin breaking down those assumptions in your work and identifying

them um this resource that is on the screen um can help you identify what good practice for a autism organizations

might look like um this is something you can revisit later um but as we've already gone into not all Nur Divergent

people are autistic and where resources are lacking for autistic adults they are very high hard to find or just don't

exist for many of the neurom minorities that fit fit under the N diversion umbrella which is why again it's so important to encourage and support the

inclusion of those who have experienced in staring you and I'm also doing principle uh three so principle three is create Equitable

access rep uh and representation for diverse Nar divent audiences and participants so it focuses on how we develop the accessibility of our spaces

including the content of our Galleries and exhibitions by looking at con uh collections uh present and future and also our interpretation

um working towards n Divergent visibility and representation in each of those it's also about acknowledging that

everyone deserves to access participate in and enjoy culture and Heritage as a human right and being humans that

includes neurod Divergent people so thinking on um cons beginning to consider a range of different access needs like physical and functional

access access which includes sensory neurological and emotional access and considering how you can begin to meet

those which it might look like many things with readability thinking about contracts and text size and sentence instructions

things like that with your website can you include more info um can you include a direct contact for Access queries um

in terms of representation are you looking at making your Acquisitions more reflective of our neurodiverse population is it part of your strategic

GS if not could it be demonstrating this principle will greatly differ dependent on what kind of Museum you are your space and your collection but a key part

of it is working towards ensuring your Nar Divergent access and visibility is more than Standalone activity and oneoff

events um and that it does inform your wider Museum practice thanks s um so principle 4 is creating Equitable opportunities and

experience for neurod Divergent people within the workforce and as volunteers and so touched on this a little bit earlier about um ensuring that there's a recognition of the value of neur

Divergent people um as well so we often see that it's a really difficult um space when NE Divergent people to be and to disclose that they're neurod Divergent within the sector and that

still is very much the case now we hear that all the time about how it's either very difficult to disclose or um people are discriminated against when they do disclose so it's making sure that that

changes for a start and to ensure that those opportunities for NE Divergent people are Equitable um and that's at every stage and later on we have case

study um from vecky who I think will probably cover um this area really really well um there's lots and lots of experience for support organizations to

think about how they do this as well um because from every stage of employment or of bringing people on as volunteers there needs to be that consideration of what the neurod Divergent people need

and if we have a sector that is very much kind of text and form heavy interview heavy um and doesn't have those proper reasonable adjustments that can really support neurode Divergent

people then they aren't going to be able to access the workforce um or be volunteers and as a result we're all um that's that's really a really difficult situation for the individuals but it's

also really harming the sector because we need neurod Divergent people we need it to be a thriving um sector neod Divergent um people think in different

ways our brains work differently um there's so much benefit from having neod Divergent people and it's makes organizations more resilient and it

brings a brilliant business case to organizations to think about this so there are lots of reasons why this needs to happen apart from ethical reasons and reasons of non-discrimination um but this is a

clear part of our principles and we feel that at the moment often this is the area that is ignored um and the focus tends to be on the audience which is also absolutely important but all of

these things have to happen because if the workforce is not representative then it's very difficult to change how the audience can be supported and we know that as a museum

sector generally um so in terms of how that supported could you help share information and training among staff to ensure that that's across the whole level of the Staffing system within the

organization could you start ensuring that the way you interview is different and the Way You Are seen by neurod Divergent people is as a friendly neurod Divergent space um we sometimes see

people saying oh well we can't give questions in advance it's not fair it's like is that right um or just give all the questions to everybody in advance you know simple things like that

sometimes we can get really really stuck on but this is how we have to do it and actually we need to start questioning ourselves and saying do we do we need to do that why are we doing that what you know what damage is that causing by

doing that and then ensuring when we have staff within our organization that we're making sure that in the long term their well-being is supported and that's really important because sometimes a s

might not know that you have neurod Divergence staff um and volunteers or they might not want to tell you so it's how do you make sure that they are supported um and they might not know how

those anticipatory adjustments and ensuring that we put those in place is absolutely key that's what principal four looks at and I'm just yes we're all right for time um and then principal

five is to Advocate um and Jill touched on this as well how do you ensure that you can help make that change from your Divergent people across the museum sector because your voices are

absolutely crucial in helping that happen we've spoken within the network about how difficult it is because often the people that are taking part in these

um activities are already recognizing that there's a need to change um might already be new Dent themselves or might recognize that part of their role is to ensure that they are accessible for

neurod Divergent people how do you make the case to people who don't think that or who don't see that this is something that they should be doing so it's properly trying to really think about how you can Advocate within your own

organization how you can kind of win over those hearts and minds of saying you know we need to be doing this and sometimes it will be through those kind of ethical roots of saying you know this is something that we should be doing

we're a public sector Organization for example we need to make sure that we're supporting neurod Divergent people but could be having to help them understand that for a business and strategic case

we need to you know one fifth of the population are neurod Divergent if we're not neurod Divergent friendly then we are excluding those people both with audiences and within our Workforce it's not a good resilient business model we

need to shift and change for that so it's thinking about how can those arguments be made it's something that we'll be doing as a neurodiverse museum to try and support and help that across the sector but anything that you can be

doing and the things you can be sharing and ideas of good practice and helping people understand that it isn't always a really expensive thing to be neurod

Divergent friendly it's it's a change in in the way of thinking um and the way in approaching um provision and access and

activity often um so I think we are at the end of our presentation I think we are just about hitting Time s I'm Gonna

Leave it to you to um finish yeah um yes so the principles can be quite overwhelming and I can find it um quite

overwhelming to talk about them but the one of the most important things to remember and to take away from this is that you don't have to have it all

figured out to start working towards some of the key things they outline or to consider underpinning some of the

thinking and uh behind them in your work so but you will get to um about some of the Fantastic activity

happening across the sector in um our upcoming case studies um and I feel that each one of them

demonstrates um each of the principles very well so keep an eye out for that um the next museums and neurodiversity

network meeting is on June 18th Tuesday June 18th and there's two times so we'll have a meeting at 10:30 to 12 and then

we'll also have another meeting in the evening um 6:00 to 7:30 for those who can't do it during working hours um yeah

and if you have any questions we have time for questions now right Justin uh we could possibly take one or

two yeah maybe one okay yeah um yeah we we're about to hit a break great um time but if anyone has a question they want to drop in the chat or if there's any in

there Al at the moment oh KY okay what we'll do is we'll have a look in the break oh Naomi I can see you put raised your hand i'm gonna take your

question if you want to come off mute um and speak you're welcome to yeah it's going to be easier is that

okay yes please yeah okay um so I I have a question and um I like first of all it's really exciting to me all the things that you say it's really

interesting and um I'm very familiar with uh neurodiversity uh I'm new to explaining it to

organizations and um and actually my question is around this concept of voice H and I I I asked this perhaps because

I've overthought it myself and I think it's quite easy to say we should have

neurodiverse voices it is very difficult I think in practice to Define what this is because of intersectionality and so I just wanted

um if you could uh elaborate perhaps on how you manage this well I'm not sure if I'm I haven't underst did the question but I'm going

to have a go want me try try and make it h do want me to try and simpler yeah you could I I think what you're asking is how have we ensured

that neurod Divergent voice is included within the work that we're sorry okay so so so so for example in the past I have worked with

neurod Divergent people whose voices actually differ from mine like we we have differences of opinion and that's okay uh because there's

diversity and there's always a danger of representing some form of homogenity where there is none and I heard somebody earlier say you know it's quite easy for me to forget that we're

not just talking about autism and and it's it's precisely this you know we already have complexities within the within the field of identity first or

person first language and and this for me highlights a very specific problem or when we talk about voice there's a danger of presenting it as if everyone

within uh who identifies as neurod divergent agrees in solidarity on this this way of viewing things where actually there is huge complexity and

and very little homogeneity by definition so yeah I understand you now thank you so much for clarifying that I have a very very slow process in Sweden

taking questions at a time I shouldn't do it um but um yeah absolutely one of the key things and I'm hoping that this is going to answer the question one of the key things we talk about is that um

neurod Divergent people are individuals as well and they don't all think the same and they don't all want things in the same way um so it's trying to ensure that there's lots of discussion and lots of understanding of that um across the

sector whether people are neurod divergent or or neurotypical to enure that that isn't happening um because it absolutely has been you know every neurod Divergent person or every

autistic person wants backpack well no that's not the case you need to be understanding that actually you're thinking about how do you ensure that you're Equitable for neurod Divergent

audiences now some of that might be that anticipatory adjustments can make some assumptions but there's still that need to understand that neurod Divergent people just like everybody else at individuals and there'll be various

different intersectionalities that will impact on that at the same time um the only way of understanding is to ask and consult and to constantly be doing exactly what you

would be doing in terms of the rest of your audience engagement um yeah SOA did you want to say anything um I don't feel I have I can

articulate my thoughts at this time but nobody say I ju for me it comes down to that thing of nothing about us

without us I think so have having the neurodivergent voice is about having involved neurodivergent people at

various stages of what museums are doing and in various parts of what museums are are thinking

about thanks Al yeah yeah I mean it's it's massively important the stereotypes that still exist the issues that still exist around that we see consistently within society and largely we're seeing

those embedded at education you know early on with both for neur neurod Divergent individuals and neurotypical individuals and that has taken back out into society and museums

have a real role to shift and change that um I'm conscious of time um I'm going to eat five minutes into the next session so that everyone can get a bit

of a break so if we could come back at 11:35 please stay on stay within the zoom space just audio off and take

visual off if if you need to um but yeah we'll be back at 11:30 35 for the next session um and I'll see you all then hi again everybody I hope we're all

back everybody's got everything that they need um and welcome back to the next part of the new diverse Museum conference um so this session is a Cas studies session um we're really

delighted to have some brilliant speakers with us today to share their work that um a lot of the information about some of the things that they've been doing um and many will be joining

us for the Q&A session this afternoon as well so so either drop questions in the chat that we'll keep for then um and also we've had some that have already come in um so we're going to have a

selection of five different uh case studies are we're going to have Becky Morris from embed and museums DCM Amy Fletcher who is PhD researcher um from

Glasgow University kle newal and Jordan Keithley from leads museums and galleries who'll be doing a kind of double-headed but also slightly separate um presentation about the different work

that they've been doing um and then we have autism barsh and the Museum of English rural um life and reading Museum so lots of different um examples and

case studies um that are in there without further Ado I'm going to hand over to Becky um I'm gonna see if I can spot you Becky there we are um from Ed

and museums dcn thanks Becky hi everybody hello hello um I'm just going to see if I can attempt to

share my screen um let's all everybody keep your fingers is crossed see if it's working yes um oh that is wonderful

right and I'm just going to because I need to have a look into this side but we'll all be fine so hello I'm absolutely delighted

to be here today and I'm so excited as well to be talking about one of my favorite things which is is neurodiversity um I'm neurod Divergent

myself I'm late diagnosed or late assessed dyspraxia and dyslexia um though I have to say that I

am one of these people who believes that uh I am indeed neuro fabulous and if you're within the gaming industry and other sectors you'll be

known as neuros spicy so I'm all about the positivity about diversity but I'm also about what it can be like to work

in places and spaces which we effectively manage because of various working cultures and also in terms of

being able to have safe and supportive conversations about our profiles so I'm just going to sort of give you a quick rundown of what I've

been up to and then a little bit about dcn and then in bed head and then what we're going to do is have a look at things like the maturity model of what

I've been up to so I'm a trustee of achievability which is a neurod Divergent Le charity and one of the things that we do is do academic

research and published reports in respect to key themes on neurodiversity we've just literally hot off the press

just had our brand new um ejournal on intersectionality and intergenerational stories in respect to neurodiversity

which you can get for free off the website but donations are always welcome also um I'm a member of the

Steering group member for the BSI Pas 6463 this is a very important document because it's the first guidance of its kind

to support neurodiversity neurod Divergent people within the built environment so that is again something

that you can get for zero Pence and you can download it from the BSI website um I've also been very

graciously asked to be an advisor for universities in respect to neurodiversity but also I'm was part of the Universal Music creative

differences um which was to do about creating inclusive workplaces and practice from a multis sector

perspective and one of the key elements was that was key work from dcn as you'll all

remember so I founded dcn with a group of Museum professionals way back in 2015

and the idea was was that dcn was not going to be a network of disabled people and neurod Divergent people however you

identify because primarily it didn't feel like a safe option at the time and it didn't feel as though it was the best

thing to do what was the key element was to reach out to other sectors via the network to see what heritage was missing

what were those key potential Solutions and practice that we could actually introduce to the sector to make it more intersectionally inclusive but also to

look at these Solutions as a way to move forward collectively and collaboratively as a sector as an organization and as the

individual to open up that discussion between the employer and the employee and we've got up to all sorts with the reopening recommendations

during the pandemic rebuilding Heritage which are both online digital inclusion we've supported a change in the law for changing places toilets and we increased

funding for accessibility through the mend fund uh which was really exciting that was a good day at the office that

was and this has led to embed um embed is now what I do um it's a multi

sector um One-Stop shop where we can support people um in respect to advice access auditing you may have seen me run

around a museum with my trusty tape measure I'm the lead access auditor we also do coaching and mentoring we develop staff networks or do health

checks we do inclusive coms reviews and websites but we also are a constructive critical friend so when it comes to key work that

we do we're always about you know come and have a chat it's okay let's have a chat and also being able to help move

people on no matter how small the organization is no matter how big the organization is this is about supporting

the authentic voice of people and often when we shine a mirror up or Spotlight on a key element of practice that's not

working often it's about how we can actually create practical support to move that conversation forward but most importantly it's about how we can

actually you know where's your good stuff and identifying your good practice so we're not finger wavers we're more

about how do we engage with respect to a constructive critical friend and the key thing is with the bottom line in all of this is the

ability to ask a question so we know that changes all around us with societal needs and requirements but we also need to think about how we can adjust

particularly with adjustments in the workplace and accountability to make sure that organizations meet the legislation that they need to duty of care

but also to call out the toxicity but reduce risk of it happening in the first place so it's about understanding where that is coming from and how we can

create workplaces where all of us feel like we can be we feel valued and can belong it's also about how with neurod

Divergent people they we can be our authentic selves so if we have an idea if we've got that key Connection in

respect to saving money or creating sustainability we can say that and be ourselves without fear or concern about what do I sound like what do I look like

to be ourselves but also to understand about how we are cross profile in all of this we are literally across the whole

Spectrum I'm this braic dyslexic I have a little bit of ADHD I believe thrown in there but also achievability did research in respect to how cross profile

is absolutely vital when it comes to workplace and visitor support but also in terms of support who

has agency to say this is good practice so it's about how we can collectively support each other

collaboratively look at organizations but also sectorally how we can have responsibility to create a sustain able

intersectionally inclusive sector and I'm going to very quickly Miss on to this when it comes to EDI we

are always considering about the maturity model of where organizations sit in respect to whether they're blissfully unaware of what they need to

do to strictly thinking about compliance often condition Le processes or thought this is more now more vitally now

thinking about strategic thinking in terms of creating that sustainability but also having that pot of money and how it can actually be more about Legacy

and embedding Key Practice so you can support intersectionality rather than right we'll do this with this it's also about how we can weave it into the fabric so

then the policies and the processes support people in respect to recruitment but also improve on representation and also understand those key processes that

may cause difficulties with that representation and then that whole situation about disruptors which is not

it sounds a bit kind of like this is the situation and we're going to disrupt it this is more about actually being courageous and saying we're not going to wait for change to happen we're going to

do it ourselves and we're going to look at our situation authentically and also as Leaders to move forward to engage

with audiences but also tackle those key problems with with literally those key processes in

mind and then leading it down to people exent uh people Centric approaches so the power the power of having positive challenging

conversations about conversation and collaboration to understand that diversity within neurodiversity that Key Practice like the paths like the Universal Music stuff

like achievability and some of the great work that's happening in the sector about how we can stem conversations and collaboration so when we look at a pot

of money we can actually say we need to think about this differently but we've already done this strategically so

rebuilding Heritage being a key example it's about lived experience but also making sure that the individual

only has to share what they need to it's not about how we can effectively say what's happened in respect to individuality this is about

psychologically safe spaces as an organization and also as a sector to say if change is going to happen happen how

does that process support the individual to open up and feel able to have that conversation and most importantly of all it's about Deeds because we we you know

you know how it is I've been in the sector 25 years you often it's about what can we do to move from a

conversation to endearing an important action most importantly of all just about lose my voice uh most importantly of all it's the intersectionality that

we're are not one identity in all of this that we are part of an incredible diverse world but also most importantly

it's about how we can talk to each other collaborate and also support each other because we all really work hard in this sector and sometimes it's about

uplifting others and other people to say great job but what can we do to build on that so we can help with all kinds of

things we can do your reviews we can help work with you and also do digital and access Audits and also we can support you with your strategy and

planning so if you've got that idea or if you say I want to do something to support neurodivergent people you know we're here to help in respect to the

workforce and also for the audiences there we are sorted jobs are good thanks so much Becky oh so much

amazing good stuff in there um yeah and I can see that in the chat there's discussion about um what you've been talking about as well she's brilliant and Becky will be with us for the Q&A um

this afternoon um and I love the fact of uplifting uplifting what other people are doing within the sector and that is absolutely Central to what the neurodiverse museum is trying to do

what's happening in where is it happening how can we learn about it is it in the sector is it outside of the sector can we bring it in and learn

about it share it learn from it um and everything is around that progression rather than oh isn't it awful why aren't they doing this it's like well we know things aren't happening and aren't

perfect but how can we change it how can we support and make that shift and it's brilliant having all of you here today because that is how it will work and sharing all of this information so

generously is brilliant thank you Becky um I'm now going to move on to our next speaker which is Amy Amy Fletcher um from Glasgow University I'm gonna let

you introduce yourself Amy um over to you I think you might be on mute Amy if you're speaking just there we go um so hi

everyone my name is Amy Fletcher and as just you mentioned I'm a PhD researcher at the University of Glasgow and I am also neuro Fabulous As Becky has

introduced me to that wonderful term so I'm going to use it um and today I am excited to share a bit about my PhD

research with you all so about um my research into making museums accessible for near Divergent people primarily

focusing on visitors but as the research has developed it has become incredibly clear that there is a lot in there about making the workplace accessible

too so to today I'll give a quick overview of what the research is and what it's involved so far um I will give

an overview of the museum workers survey findings because we only have 50 minutes I can't go into all the details of what new Divergent people said in the visitor

survey but some of that will come through as we talk about it um I will then talk about what these findings mean

for the sector and what the next steps can be to make the workplace more accessible so the research Overview at the beginning of this PhD I

wanted to make sure that the research I was doing reflected the priorities of neod Divergent people so together with two focus groups I developed the

research questions for this study and they're primarily focused on visitor experience and was focused on centering the neurod Divergent adult voice because

typically that has been missing when thinking about how to make museums accessible for autistic people for near Divergent

people so it's focused on what the motivations are for visiting and what the barriers are to get a better understanding of how these things can

impact whether people attend museums the second was to think about what museums currently offer and again reflect on what the barriers are that

impact museums in delivering neurod Divergent specific resources and events and

finally the focus is on how museums and the cultural heritage sector can learn from neurod Divergent adults and work

together to adapt practices to make it more engaging accessible and Equitable so over the last couple of years this

has taken shape in what this timeline shows so there's been multiple levels of consultation through focus groups through individual feedback

from near Divergent people it then resulted in two surveys being launched one for neurod Divergent

adults which had 466 responses in total um that were fully completed and the museum worker survey which had 130 responses

these were then closed and analyzed and I worked with these findings to put together workshops to get feedback from

Museum workers from NE Divergent adults and to further refine the themes to identify what the priorities are to then develop the guidance toolkit for the

sector so what were the key Museum worker findings firstly I think one of the biggest points that I took away from the

findings was just how many people were identifying as neurod diverent in the survey so as part of the survey I asked people whether they identified as neurod

divergent and in total 37% responded Yes and a further 8 to 9% responded n

so again significantly higher representation than perhaps would have been expected based on the level of disclosure in the

sector there was also a really broad range of roles and organizations represented from front of par to

collections volunteers to directors so it showed a really a really good broad range of perspectives being brought into the discussion

there was also a really good understanding of accessibility in terms of making space that is Equitable accessible that people feel that their needs can be

met but at the same time there were low levels of confidence in what was available and whether museums were actually delivering and creating those

accessible spaces that they were aware should be there but again there was also a very clear motivation to see an improvement

in understanding of accessibility to make museums accessible for neurod Divergent people and finally the high numbers of

neurod Divergent people that um identified as neurod diverent or were identified by other Museum workers

as being present in the sector showed that the findings and the future direction of This research needs to move Beyond just the visitor experience and

towards how to make museums more accessible for the workforce and this this came up as well when thinking about what should go in

the toolkit so again a lot of the focus of what the respondents to the survey wanted was more information about what

barriers are so so they can be addressed of what advice could help to develop resource or

event development to make sure that needs across a range of neurod Divergent um communities are

met there was also a focus on having advice on how to directly involve autistic and your Divergent adults in in

developing practice in actively putting together programming and resources that are available for neurod Divergent people and anyone who

may need them and one of the things that came up through the anecdotal um questions was around a

desire for more information about the workforce so whilst these questions focused on the visitor experience time and time again respondents said

that they wanted to better understand how to support their NE Divergent colleagues how to support volunteers who work in the sector and how to alleviate

the amount of expectation that there is on neurod Divergent people leading on neurod Divergent resource development so what do these findings

mean for the sector so firstly the high presence of neurod Divergent people in this survey

demonstrate that there is a high number of neurod Divergent people in the sector and therefore it's incredibly important

that the work that we put into making museums accessible for visitors is also put into making sure the sector is accessible for Museum

workers it found that a lot of neurod diverent adults and often young people are

voluntarily leading the work to make museums more accessible they are undertaking work in addition to their own workloads they are taking part in

often short-term projects so it highlighted that there is a need to reflect on this model to make sure that the responsibility for making

museums accessible is shared across the organization and not just certain certain sections like um engagement or

front of house it should be embedded throughout it was found that there were gaps and understanding about neurodiversity but that there was also

that desire to fill it so having sectoral training having neurod Divergent people lead the way in um

um supporting the development of understanding across the sector it was felt that the needs of NE

Divergent people as visitors and as as Museum workers was not a priority for management but also that they felt that findings from this type of research and

the work of the neurodiverse museum can help to boost awareness and understanding of the importance of focusing on neurod Divergent workers

needs as well as visitors and finally that there is a desire for greater support and guidance to develop um experience from that HR

recruitment process all the we through your day-to-day experience in the sector so this means that the museum sector need to look Beyond simply the

experience of its visitors it needs to work with its its current workers with potential workers to identify what is needed to make it

accessible there's a need to invest in training and resources that benefit the entire Workforce by boosting their

confidence and understanding of neurodiversity and that creating guidance on inclusive recruitment

processes of good examples of networking support spaces would be beneficial to creating an equitable experience for all

workers so to conclude museums are showing a great understanding and motivation when it comes to making

museums accessible for neurod Divergent visitors but it's also really crucial that we take the enthusiasm and ensure that we are improving the experience of the

workforce as well that by working directly with neurod Divergent people to identify what those barriers are what would be

beneficial support and what would make it a safer environment to disclose and know your needs are met would be beneficial in creating a neuro affirming

sector for us all and in terms of the next steps for This research I will be developing seal

guidance that will be informed by the research findings by lived experience good examples of professional practice and research in order to help support

the sector on this journey to a neuro affirming accepting and understanding place thank you thanks so much Amy oh again so much

information in there and some really practical support that's coming out of your research um some brilliant headline figures that can support some of the

advocacy I think back across the sector um and it's going to be brilliant to see what else you U develop that can support the sector going forward um I'm

fascinated to hear more about your work um and to see how that could support the sector and I think it's key for us as neurod diversity to make sure that we can keep pulling all of those strands together and help sharing that out what

I'm really Keen to ensure doesn't happen with this work is things like I don't know if a lot of people in here will have us things like inspiring learning for all that was created oh so many years ago but seems to have gone out of

favor various different reasons often the museum sector will put things together that go oh this is a really good way of working but actually it's not embedded so some of the work that's been developed by people like Becky and

people like you Amy and other people we really need to make sure that this is absolutely Central going forward and it's not just a um something that people think they can do and then forget

about um I'm going to stop talking um I'm really really impressed that our speakers are hitting time and there's so much pressure on the next one now that I've said that um but I'm going to move

on I'm gonna um also ask our speakers to keep looking in the chat because we will have time for Q&A later but I'm conscious there won't be loads of time and there are a lot of questions so if you're able to answer questions in the

chat as they come in as well that would be really helpful otherwise we will make sure we send questions out to speakers if they don't get answered we don't have time so that we can respond outside of

the session but do just keep dropping into the chat and we'll just keep um asking people to answer them as much as we can um I'm gonna move on now to Carl

um I can see that you've um come into Vision so I've gone for you first instead of Jordan so Carl um from leads museums and galleries um I'm Gonna Let

You Again introduce yourself um and share your screen thanks Carl Le thank you okay well um hello everyone uh good

afternoon uh my name is KL uh my pronouncer he him um I am a white male with short dark hair and a beard um and

a slightly weary look in my eyes um so thank you very much for inviting me along to this event um uh and yeah um it's it's great to be part

of this to chat about um the sort of things that we've been doing here at leads museums and galleries uh along with Jordan as well um so for my half of

it I'll be talking about careers for all uh which is a project I run through leads museums and galleries um that uh produces career aspiring activities uh

for young people uh with special educational needs and or disabilities um so a brief introduction to leads museums and galleries with the

largest local Authority Museum service in the UK outside of London we have uh

nine sites uh across uh uh those nine sites we have 1.3 million objects um and around 200 staff that workor for us as

well uh and those are the sites that we work at um so to introduce you to careers for all if you've not come across it before um we create these career aspir

activities uh and the idea is that uh we were wanting to create like a little Bridge um between learning within school

and college uh to earning in the workplace um and uh oops

sorry uh and uh to increase skills uh and confidence around uh the workplace as well um so my

original uh setup when I started my role was only two and a half days a week and it was supposed to be temporary it was supposed to only last for two years and

then it would disappear um and that started in 2019 so I'm still here and I work more days and actually now um the

role has been swallowed more broadly into the council um and it's counted partly as an employment and skills role now um and that's due to the importance

that the employment and skills team have seen within it so hopefully when I talk about the things that we have done at these museums you'll have some things that you might be able to take away um

as uh inspiration of perhaps what you could do within your own experiences as well um so here I put scaffolding participants

into employable adults uh until this morning I read through it again and I put the question mark in the end and I'll tell you why in a bit um so the idea is is that the programs that I run

uh we offer a range of different things um that is supposed to create like a journey or a ladder for participants to

climb up um growing in confidence uh to uh a point where uh they feel that um they've got a stronger CV or

potentially um wanting to look for employment or potentially uh as some of the participants have had just the the confidence to not be in a learning

environment in anymore in school um or to go and engage in activities outside of their house um and this really starts

with um Outreach workshops um so this sort of scaffold approach was really put together through consultation with um teachers and tutors from what we call

silks specialist inclusive Learning Centers um a lot of uh other Loc around the UK will call it specialist provision or uh special schools um but the

consultation I went into a bunch of schools said what we were planning to do for careers for all and they basically sat me down and said look this is what

we want um so everything I'm telling you is is has come into fruition through these consultations um so that includes

Outreach workshops um where I go into schools Charities colleges um and essentially take collection to them um

and these are really really useful for students who are not feeling confident to to leave um the school environment uh

initially um it's also really handy in that I can meet a lot of students in one sitting as well so I can meet a class worth in a silk that often is still

below 10 um but it means I I can form that Rapport there we also do tast to days these are one- day work experience uh and anybody who

comes to these and has a really good time can end up coming into a full work experience as well um I'll cover a little bit more on that on the next

slide uh we have also run a youth panel in the past um uh specifically through careers for all um but actually more

broadly we have several youth panels that we run across leads museums and Galleries and one of the special things about um having several youth panels is that uh it means that the careers for

all participants um can then go on um to our other youth panels within the organization as well um we've got that

safe space that it's a careers for all panel initially um but then there are bigger panels elsewhere that they could engage with we also have uh what called

project placements uh these are uh paid employment opportunities at entry level and we're very careful with how these are advertised presented um and how we

run interview processes in order to make these as accessible as possible and actual fact this is leading to a wider change within the organization uh more

generally as well um and at the end my final bullet point why did I put the question mark uh and this is because I've seen actually some of the activities within careers

for all aren't about becoming employable adults um it is uh potentially just a a stepping stone into greater confidence

or um seeing opportunities outside of school that previously wouldn't have been thought about um I've had a young person who finished their work experience um once who said that they

wanted to go to London and look at museums and they they hadn't really visited Museum in their past before their placement so that for them was a

huge step and a huge positive um so these are uh in terms of our work experience um I think what's

really important with how it works and how to help make it successful is to not make it off the peg um there are certain

activities or if you like um job roles um that I'm able to offer more often um but uh it's very much not a a

pre-assembled box that we try and fit somebody into um so I will meet with the student find out about their interests um find out what strength they have what

they want to do for their career in the future um and then try and chat to the staff um that are in our team that that would be most suitable really and um

find the right collections that they could work with um so a typical day um if if one can call

it that um could be uh generally to start off with a couple of hours a day and this is purposefully to reduce the

amount of pressure um as much as we can um on on things like uh having an extended amount of time with with people

or places that you're unfamiliar with or um having that sort of sudden jump into the deep end from from being in school

to to working with us um our work experiences typically are uh 16 to 25 year olds um uh because that is kind of

our target audience in terms of colleges um and uh six forms within specialist inclusive Learning Centers

um and then we have what worked and what didn't um so uh very much uh it depends on the individual uh and I think this has been a running theme uh throughout

um somebody asked a question at at the very start before the first break about you know um just because somebody is neurod Divergent doesn't mean that they hold the opinion that every neurod

Divergent individual holds uh and I think that's really really important to understand um so uh typically um

having a prepared timetable or knowledge of what is coming each week uh really really helps um but there are some that

I have worked with who like kind of the ad hoc uh nature of of work at times um and then finally recording it

is really important to us as well so um people who engage in our work experience do uh like a uh learning like a learning Journal almost

um which is reflecting upon their days it uh um and their day work and what they've done and what they've learned and it's

essentially um CV fodder um for them and an understanding of the experience that they are gaining and a chance to reflect but it also works really well as

assessment for us at least museums um that naral story just there uh you can click on the link and read it it's actually something that of our work

experience students put together um where uh they got really interested in the Narwhal Tusk that we have in our collection and so wrote a Learning Resource on it so I just wanted to show

it as a bit of an example um I love showing off the work that some of our placements have done so there's uh The Voice here of some of

the young people that we've worked with um more recently um I'll I'll let you have a read through that when the the the slides are shared because I'm aware

of time I'll keep moving on um but ultimately I wanted to cover that this this Frontline programs and partner um led to a partnership with illuminate

education group uh this is a collection of colleges within Yorkshire um and it was done to create more accessible uh

employment methods um within our organization but also to look at how the college could assist their students in

terms of applications um and interviews as well so we put together um it's called the ETF project and we put together uh several focus groups

involving young people from leads College um our youth panel at one of our museums and a professionals group of teachers tutors and uh members from

employment and skills group and we ended up with huge amounts of feedback um this is just one slide out of several uh again I can share these um so you can

read them in more depth later and this is one that was done by our panel at the industrial Museum and it created this a huge amount

of change we've talked about uh Recruitment and Staffing uh and the importance of that previously uh and that's a huge part of my role now within the organization thanks to this to this

project um so here are some of the bullet points that we've changed pre-application zooms where people can join and meet staff hear about the job role they're

going for um before they apply for it uh applicants are given contact of somebody who can answer queries on access we openly allow notes and support workers

as well um questions and visual stories that was mentioned before questions being sent in advance um and as somebody mentioned as well this is for everybody um so it's leveling the playing field

field it's not not just questions are sent in advance if you disclose um that you are neurod Divergent um or or have a learning disability it's it's blanket

for everybody you don't have to say that you are to get these um and also training for staff as well um and it's led to Great impact

more widely within the council so um one of the things that I'm most proud of is uh that the museum has had an impact in the council as a whole and recruitment practices are changing um as our

diversity within our staff and volunteer teams but I will stop there if anybody wanted to know more from me um then please do get in contact or um tap the

questions into the chat and I'll try and cover them um but otherwise I'm going to pass over to Jordan at this

point thanks so much Carl Jordan I think you're there there we go um hello okay you go for it nice one thank you so

let's begin sharing come on PowerPoint success cool so hi um I am Jordan Keithley my

pronouns are he him I'm a white British person who apparently looks quite young um I've got dark brown short hair and

now have like large dark green glasses um so who am I I also work within lead museums and galleries but I'm the youth engagement curator at Lead City Museum

that means I fall within the kind of wide Community team at leads museums and Galleries and really it's the job of that team to represent and to advocate

for and to form relationships with the local communities of leads which means we work with a great kind of diverse range of different audiences and kind of

our job revolves around relationship building really um but with me being the youth engagement curator I have that added focus of um working with 14 to 24

year olds now the case study that I want to share with you today is um an exhibition called overlooked which was curated by a group called The

preservative party so again these are a group of 14 to 24 year olds um who are based at Lead City Museum the group was founded in 2010 and it was a six week

experiment initially but here we are 14 years later um nearly um still kind of curating and kind of working and pushing for change really and that's something

to stress is that this group really is a a group of kind of young Advocates and very activist in its nature to kind of push for greater representation and

inclusivity um the group meet weekly for two hours every Thursday um and really what is really important here is they

have kind of ultimate agency in what they do and the topics that they focus on which means the museum service has to place an enormous amount of trust within

them um and to kind of give them the space to kind of talk about what they want to um one thing that's important to me is that there's sort of progression within the group and sort of into um the

museum service and it's something that we're trying to improve I myself was a member when I was there in 2010 but it I can't say to you it was a smooth linear

process from me being a member to me having this position now um but it's something that we're trying to improve is that kind of seamless transition into

Museum based roles so the overlooked exhibition um in Hall this was an effort for the group to they felt like when

they visited museums they didn't feel represented um that them as individuals their identity what kind of their protected Char characteristics whatever they felt their stories were not there

and therefore they felt overlooked and they wanted to tell the voices tell these stories um of the local communities in a very kind of

challenging way which meant the overlock exhibition really focused on it was very ambitious it was very Broad in the subjects it looked upon we told the

story of Angela moley who was the first openly trans woman to be nominated from for an Academy Award but then around the corner there was a story of of an ancient enslaved person 3,000 years old

and then around the corner from that several films made by the de Community around the corner from that looking at um women during the first world war and then looking at NE Divergent um voices

as well so again the only thing that was linking these people is that they had been overlooked which meant it was a very ambitious project but it was very kind of authentic in how the group approached it um here's just proof that

they did do it um they were they wrote the text they chose the objects they made the cups of tea and coffee for the communities that we went out to form relationships with they designed the

panels chose the images you know absolutely everything painted the gallery um so what I want to show you

now is a small clip from a section if I can get to it because Banner's in the way um we made a film which ultimately

is to kind of document the process and the stories that I'm telling you now and want to focus upon are the members of the group who are neod Divergent and

they wanted to share their personal experiences and what it was like for it is like for them being NE Divergent individuals and the kind of experiences that they've come across and just sort

of spreading awareness really about that so I have a short film which let's hope it works in the UK group want to see themselves represented in Museum

Collections and where this project has stemmed from we designed the whole thing with accessibility in mind knowing that it was going to be open for

everyone I am a later diagnosed autistic person um and I'm also very openly queer and I have been through a lot of educational processes and work processes

as a person who has been later diagnosed with autism I think it's really relevant to talk about autistic history um a lot of people don't know a lot about people who are Autistic or they only know about

people who are considered to be autistic superheroes and people like Nicholas uh Nicolas Tesla and Einstein and people who we would look back and think are artistic I think it's important for

artistic people's voices to be found within museums and galleries because there's a lot of great information and perspectives that autistic people can bring to the Heritage sector and to look

at the video that was made about stimming which was really awesome I was a person who for a really long time tried to control my stemming and didn't STM in a way that was particularly open

and to see people being introduced to the first time for what it was like to stem and what stemming looks like was amazing I think it's a lot easier for a lot of people I know that it is for me

to have something on a badge that maybe if you need to you could reference rather than saying I am autistic and I don't want to make eye contact or I have ADHD I might interrupt you I'm Alice

wood and I run doodle people uh which is a business which makes kind of communicative and representative apparel to give people information at a glance that you might not want to Estell

immediately in conversation and it's kind of like social and public transport AIDS in a way it was really cool my husband took some pictures of me like

just grinning ear to ear next to the badges I'm s I'm a NE Divergent creative

and Advocate I worked on iy as part of Overlook on nous terminology and language I want share like a quote by

Judy singer who kind of coined the term neurodiverse she said it describes the Limitless variability of human cognition

and the uniqueness of each human mind I think a lot of people use the terminology and they're well-meaning but

they're not exactly correct and I think to begin shifting perspectives we need to speak about

people in the way that's supportive to them I was very emotional the first time I saw overlooked admittedly I've had some personal work with the group The Press party I was an ex-member of the

press party and have come through the service myself and have done a lot of work with the group and upon seeing it for the first time it was very overwhelming fing in a really good way when we were installing the exhibition

in January honestly I just found it fun it was cool to come to leads and help paint the walls and stuff and watch this face like slowly transform into all this um so thank you for just watching

that um that entire uh film was made really just sort of as a report to capture the voices and the various different communities that we worked with but it was really important to kind

of Spotlight what The Preserve party did and especially those that worked on the section looking at the neod diverse Community really did and sharing their sort of authentic experiences and that

was what was really important is it was a section led by and written by NE Divergent people focusing upon the things that were important to them and

that was talking about things such as diagnosis about stemming about traits and presentations um and just sort of raising awareness really and introducing

visitors to the language of it um we've sort of had some really powerful feedback from visitors and especially um some of the sort of special education lead schools that they found this sort

of very empowering um especially the film that we made looking at stemming um which really is just a member of the group showing us their

stims alongside an explanation of why people do it and what it can look like or sound like um and again just sort of debunking some of the myths and trying to create a sort of protected

environment where people may feel safe to do that um a bit more openly um again looking at doodle people these sort of badges that are sort of

communicative and they sort of set a boundary and many of the preservative party really felt very empowered to have these Badges and Alice from doodle people became like a very close kind of

partner on the project and we all wore their badges all the time and many staff members and many members of the group sort of just wear these badges daily now

um so again it's been really sort of powerful to share that um we also built into the space and this is immediately adjacent to the section looking at the

new Divergent voices um a kind of reflection zone now overlooked in general was very triggering you know it was a it was an exhibition that really spoke a lot about

personal trauma but also kind of violence and discrimination slavery there would depictions of conversations surrounding human remains and it was really important to the group that the whole exhibition is accessible to those

that we are hoping to you know advocate for and therefore we needed to give the visitor permission to step out you know to step away to have a quiet space to

use some kind of air Defenders or just just have permission to to relax rather than feeling like they had to leave because if you're relying on visitors

who are overwhelmed leaving well there's no actual guarantee that they're leaving into a better environment than this one you know we could they could run into a school group and where a city center site you know they may feel trapped so

we wanted to provide this kind of quiet reflective area um as part of that and that brings me on to sort of access of the whole exhibition in general and this is again sort of the members of the

group who wrote the section looking at neurodiversity really LED on this it was you know what do they want what would be useful to them to come to an exhibition and it was a map a floor plan with says

where the themes are but it also says where the triggers are not only um you the kind of emotional triggers you know it has to be physically accessible but emotionally accessible as well as

intellectually accessible um so again this map has had such a positive response but you know as I'll come on to L it we didn't reinvent the wheel here this wasn't hard to produce it wasn't

expensive to produce it was just something that was the result of lots of conversations with people about you know well what would stop you from coming would you want to go to an area that is talking about vience and discrimination

would it be better if you knew where that is and you could avoid it yes um and again this was sort of next to some um additional sort of AIDs that we put

in there looking magnifying glasses air Defenders um dyslexic friendly large print um and now I'm we're working quite closely with um the partners that we

connected with for overlock but how can we sort of roll this out on mass now around the whole museum but it's not just looking at sensory defense it's you know to it's looking at you know things

that actually Elevate the experience for um neurod Divergent visitors again this bench apparently was like the most accessible bench in the world and now we have it apparently and um visitors are

really um sort of pleased that it exists it's wheelchair accessible it's wood so it's warm it's a certain height so if you're an older person or have mobility issues you can get on an off it there's

like a tapping rail if you're partially cited or blind and use a cane um now what I just want to kind of close on uh the learnings from this um and this is I'm just going to read this

straight out so we must understand and seek to represent and support the diversity of neurod diversity I think with the conversations that the preservative party had with the wider sort of lead city council and other

partners is there is obviously a great focus on autism and ADHD but the goal of the preservative party is to to spread the awareness of of the whole umbrella term and and how you can support and

represent everyone that falls within that um we learned that co-created projects necessitate a flexible timeline and this really also ties into the fact

that rigid processes must be adapted um so to give you an example we work in a museum there is a text deadline and there's a design deadline however if a member of our

group is sharing their personal experiences about what life was like for them during the process of their diagnosis of autism and it's taking them a bit longer to kind of write that or to

think about that or actually they don't communicate in a written way and it's actually just weeks of me talking to them and trying to write down what they think and make sure that that it is

representative that deadline kind of needs to be adjustable you know I'm not saying throw it in the bin but I'm saying like there needs to be a wider understanding in the sector and the teams that we work with that for this to

be authentically co-curated and for us to actually represent the voices of the new Divergent people that they're working with we cannot hold them to strict inflexible deadlines you know yes

I could have written it but what's the point in that you know um and that's why Overlook sort of really did actually break some boundaries and really did feel like a step forward for museums

because it was just uncompromisingly authentic and it made unfortunately working with me a bit difficult um but the The Wider service were really supportive of this um and that is know

bringing those teams along with us and the mission that we were trying to create um really kind of eased that process and then finally accessible practice does not have to break the

budget um you know it was simply one extra panel to design the access map air Defenders were relatively cheap uh open dyslexia font just reprinting all of the

text into a booklet these adjustments were really affordable made a massive difference um and yes we are wanting to kind of build on this and do more sensory mapping across the entire site

but we were just working within one exhibition and we provided very accessible resources and support within that and it wasn't much more expensive and also tying into what Carl kind of closed on you know adjusting practice to

think about you I'm doing some interviews I'm going to send out a visual journey of of the plan of that and let's send out the questions extra little steps that may add an hour or two

on to the prep for me but makes an enormous difference for all of the people who are coming to that whether they are neod divergent or not um we've had a positive response to all of that

and that's my information blur finished um if you have any questions please um do get in touch later I will be at the panel later for half an now so thank you for

listening oh thank you so much as well Jordan Carl Jordan amazing um there's comments in the chat definitely go and have a have a look um it's just such a

brilliant example qu case study of how you you can properly just embed this work but I know it's not been easy um and it is brilliant to listen to both of you because it is inspiring to hear how

you've done that um and Talking of inspiring I can't remember which one of you mentioned it but the inspiration porn that we often see about um Mur Divergent people Museum shifting that

and changing that perspective I think it was somebody that was speaking in your film Carl um yeah we have to change that um um and start thinking about how we support neurod diers voice much more

differently on representation thank you both um I'm going to move on um and well done for sticking to time gonna move on

now to um our final case study um sight change of person I'm gonna try and get this right so we've got Philipa Jane and Lucy um and they are from Oden barkshire

Museum of English Royal life and reading Museum um to get again to give a case study um about their work now philipper are you starting am I handing over to you first yeah I can I can share the

screen if that's okay thanks Justin um what time do you want us to finish so you have 15 minutes 15 minutes brilliant thank and then we'll adapt the um the next we'll probably still give everybody

a 45 minute break and we'll just take a little bit of time from the afternoon oh that's wonderful thank you ever so much and thank you so much for having us um it's been absolutely brilliant and so

many inspiring projects and speakers um just fantastic um we have come as a trio today so um what we thought we would do is just briefly introduce ourselves if that is okay so Jane would you like to

go first so I'm James stford Bill I'm um middle-aged woman um I've got um children highlighted her and blue eyes

um I also have three neurodiverse children I am myself dyslexic and dyspraxic and um one of the clinical directors the local Mental Health Trust who is responsible for autism she told

me that I should um self- diagnosed as an adult so make that what you want thank you Jane and

Lucy I'm Lucy Griffin I'm visitor Services officer at reading Museum and yes describe myself I'm I'm a tall white L middle-age lady but yeah delighted to

be here thank you um and I'm Philippa Heath I'm the learning and engagement manager at the Museum of English Rural Life um I'm a

not so tall 5'4 um white um lady with dark hair um and we are thrilled today to be sharing with you um a case study

of museums at my way which is a neurod Divergent program um which takes place at reading Museum and the Merl um and just introducing both of our museums if

I kick off Lucy about the mer um we were founded in 1951 we're part of the University of reading um and we are a museum which celebrates

the life and work of people's experiences in the countryside over to you Lu wonderful so we're in the large Victorian Town Hall in the center of

town if you've been to reading um nine galleries but highlights are some of our finds from Roman silchester medieval reading Abby and we've obviously got our

unique draing copy of the Baya tapestry and we also have um changing exhibitions so as well as being connected by both being in the town of reading um we are

also connected through Museum's partnership reading which is known um internally as MPR and it's a Consortium of both van museums working together

which has been supported by the Arts Council England's um National portfolio organization fnday um and since two 2018

um we've been an no and we have been developing at both of our museum sites a w wide range of projects and programs um and also kind of responding to the

challenges created by the pandemic in engaging and reaching diverse audiences in our local area um museums my way has been one of

those programs that has been funded as part of this Arts Council funding and our next slide is going to be Jane talking a little bit about um how our

relationship with autism bsha began um so if I just say a couple of words about autism bsha um where a charity over 30 years old um we were

originally set up by parents of autistic children and children um with challenging Behavior as that was the word that was appropriate at the time um who were looking for diagnosis and

looking for more support in education um because believe it or not there were no places at schools for for for children um back then and um I spoke to her mother yesterday who has a 32y old

autistic son who had to go to boarding school in Southampton because of his autism there was no provision locally at all um and we are very much a user Le

organization um and we are we try to be very neuro affirming um we've campaigned a lot for improved um facilities

resources um for any part of the public sector whether it's health education um Sport and Leisure anything at all um and back in

2016 we complained bitterly about the waiting lists for diagnosis and the lack of support when you did get a diagnosis and the NHS then turned around to us and

asked us to run a pre and post diagnostic support service for children and then two years ago we were asked to expand that to cover adults as well um

and the interesting thing about working now with the adults is that we have so many parents and they might be in their 70s they might we had somebody who was

47 and his mother came to see us about what he should be doing we kept saying but what does your son want to do and she didn't really know he said well why don't you ask him what he wants so it's very difficult sometimes to change

people's attitudes um I'm a great support of museums um my children were regularly taken along to museums when they were very small

and I always found that the museum staff were incredibly welcoming as I said I've got three neurod dear children um so I was absolutely delighted when we were

asked back in 2018 to do some staff training for um staff at Merlin and reading Museum uh from that um they have we had

our first Artis and friendly quiet hour session in 2019 then of course the pandemic hit philipper came into our online support group us call it Friday lunch break when you could just come along for a coffee

and a a chat and see how life was going um and uh put together the online consultation and the feedback was that quiet sessions particularly offputting

people um a lot of autistic individuals are very sensitive to sound as we all know um but and they like frequently they do like a quieter environment you

know shopping centers we have a very large shopping center called The Oracle in read but it's got those lovely marble floors um lots of stainer steel around lots of glass it's very eoy and it is

really quite an unpleasant environment for lost people um but so you might want to have a quieter session but actually a

lot of autistic children are very noisy so a quiet session my son would would never be quiet and he would be running for flitting from one thing to the next

whatever was interesting for him so that's why we changed the sessions now and it's not just an hour we're doing Mondays and then we've the Saturday

sessions as well um we promoted the TS Valley Autism alert car work with TS Valley police we've got over three and a half thousand those cards in circulation

now they look like this and we also have a verting that says I am autistic because we have some people who want to be called I autistic and we have

other people that want to have autism so we try to identify with whatever language that they want to use um it was really exciting when we got the sensory

friendly breakout spaces last year and those are available every Saturday um they're also linked with the Curve which is the big library in slau they have Museum pods so they're about the size of

a domestic Garden gazebo um and then they they've got information about the different history of slow um so they've got very small

space um they're incredibly good so that was really really exciting to be involved with that hersel is um the um astronomer um lived in slow and they did

a fantastic um event looking at phases of the moon using Oreo biscuits which was rather fun and next week we've been invited back to do more um autism awareness training for staff which would

be fantastic so as you can probably um gather from Jane slide really museum is my way has been a sort of a a program which has developed and taken a while to

develop and has definitely evolved over time and of course punctuated right in the middle by uh covid which of course massively changed things again um so it

had its origins in about 2016 to 2018 when again a collaborative partnership project between ready Museum and the mill was taking place and that was

called Digi reading um and that aimed to think about how digital Technologies could increase and improve access to our

museums and that program I think first um saw was working in partnership with autism barkshire um and also the Center for Autism at the University of reading and through that we developed some

digital resources which included a sensory map and social story um then we had the first if you like kind of iteration of um an on-site

activity and that was in the form of a quiet hour um which never really took off it was a Sunday morning early before you know interactives and

things went on so all of the kind of um immersive experiences in the museum were were Switched Off um and of course that

was well just didn't work as an offer um and so when kind of Co hit and we came back again we okay let's let's revisit this what okay what what do we know

didn't work and let's do more consultation to try and find an offer that would work um and then the idea of

museums my way was was born out of that consultation um and since 2022 um you can see on the slide how many sessions

we've run at both both sides um and how many attendees have have visited us um I suppose the main thrust or ideas behind museums my way is that they are

different types of sessions so people can choose whatever approach works for them so at the Merl um we have been offering quarterly museums my way

sessions between 10 and 2 um on Mondays when the museum is usually close to visitors we call it um a relaxed rather than a quiet experience um and it's

relaxed just because numbers um are capped um so it's not a busy experience but all of the immersive and AV Technologies are still available and

then at reading Museum um uh offers um activities on a Saturdays which is a bit more of an informal kind of breakout space um we've since developed a badge

which kind of is an indicator of museums my way which we apply to events um which operate in this Spirit um and the whole idea is that hopefully visitors can see

that badge and be confident that the session has been designed with their needs in mind Lucy's now going to just talk through some of the pledges and the um

principles behind museums my way so we pretty much just um read what's there obviously we're interested for feedback from other museums um have a dedicated lead member of Staff trained in

neurodiversity awareness of each event or activity ensure that volunteers and other public facing staff are briefed in neurodiversity Awareness provide sunflower lanyards for visitors who wish

to wear well for the duration of the activity event provide a social story for the venue provide a visual timetable for the activity or event I think that's

been really useful provide access to a breakout space and adult and child ear Defenders provide access to sensory backpacks and sensory gadgets provide

collection based self-led Andor staed activities suitable for all ages and have a current access policy reviewed is there one more at the bottom Philipa I can't see it oh there is L

which is review and adapt sessions to develop responsibility feedback I'm so sorry that might be my screen some fabulous so we've got all of these

principles which are um which hopefully are kind of all part of our Museum's my way packages um so as we said kind of it's very much kind of different

opportunities um uh and experiences at both of the museums so just talking through very briefly um museums my way at the mer um I said we have them

roughly every quarter normally the Monday of um the holiday periods um and it's for adults um and and children and

it's drop in um between 10 and two and that was very much that kind of need for a drop in activity was something which came out of the autism biy consultation um all activities are

optional and you can visit any point within the event times um but we do ask for pre- um registering where possible um just so we can have an idea of

numbers that would be expected um so as I hinted at earlier um it's a chance to visit the museum in a more relaxed way but all of our digital

and immersive experiences including our interactives and games all remain available but our numbers are capped um we've got various resources

that are available and normally stations of activities so um for example we have things like our sensory backpacks which included offenders puppets ways of seeing

resources um we also have breakout spaces um which were recommended to us um by Addington School our local special educational needs school um and I suppose just to flag as

well that our sensory backpacks are available at all time so they're not restricted just to the Museum's MyWay um sessions and then we also have as part of our Museum as my way normally a

different theme which kind of helps inform um object handling and investigation experiences um facilitated craft

activities and also themed Gallery trails and we have a range of previsit resources available including a social story sensory map and visual time

tables handing over to you lissy yeah I'm just I'm just aware that we're three of us speaking there like lot of content to go through but essentially we're slightly different offer on a Saturday

that we're more of a drop in breakout space so that you can just enjoy visiting the museum with your with your family but if you want to get away from

what is quite a busy day you can um enjoy using a tent cushion um borrowing a sensory backpack yeah so that that's

sort of the aim behind ours fantastic and then just moving through very very quickly we've got um a range of the different resources that we offer and Jane has kindly agreed to talk at these

slides and say why they're important um a lot of um autistic individuals um have anxiety particularly if they haven't been to a place before or they

haven't been to that sort of activity before um our feedback did show that of the visitors we had 71% had visited the museum before so that really that's a

really big number so people you know needed to know um the sort of things that was happening so this is just an example of the social

story and then we've got the um the idea here of a visual timetable using PEX cards um some people use these some people don't my son was mainstream

ability he's got a degree now in biomedical science but we found actually having a timetable like this we're going to do this then we're going to do that are we going to do that next that was really helpful for him and then we've

got some wonderful maps of the galleries as well coming next so we've got a sound map as to a lighting map and then a touch map as well

here's some of the feedback and I think this is the feedback that we I mean we're constantly kind of capturing feedback so that the offer evolves across um our sites and

we're being responsive um and it's really flagged the importance of the partnership with autism barkshire in terms of reaching and audience um but has also really

highlighted um the need that actually the session have enabled people to visit museums um in ways that they might not have been able to do before yeah one of

the big things that families tell us is there isn't a good place to take their children um you know shopping centers are really busy places like swimming pools and Leisure centers they tend to be very very noisy and

overwhelming um and a museum that's tends to be quieter it's ordered it's got collections so if your child is very interested in you know whether it's

tractors or paintings or the Romans things that children you know really get into that you know we have a gallery about most of things children enjoy um

so that's a fantastic opportunity for families to go out and socialize with their children um and other and meet other families as

well and Lucy handing over to you um yes I I think everyone probably read read this through okay hopefully but this was just some lovely feedback that we have um from the breakout area

um and just how happy they were to be able to get away um from it was essentially had become rather a difficult a difficult visit and how they ended up staying for a few hours and and

seeing more of the mum where they wouldn't have otherwise and that that feedback obviously really helps confirm that we're hopefully going in the right direction and we're very proud in

reading of our the world's largest collection of Huntly and Palmer biscuit tins because they based in town um you like a biscuit tin we've got

lots I'm very conscious of time and the need to kind of think about our lunch break but um so I might just scoot through the next few slides if that's okay so um we can share this

presentation with Justine and the team and um that can be shared with you but we've got a bit more feedback and again it's just really important that sort of sense of um this being a very people

Centric kind of program um which I know has been mentioned earlier but also we're trying our best to respond to improvements that can be made with the

offer um since um over the last year it's it's evolved even further so um for some of our public um EV events um at the Merl we've now got my way sessions

as part of those so for example this one is Magical Lights my way which is a Christmas event in which lots of the families who attended said that they normally can't attend um Christmas

events so this was just um a beautiful experience and that lovely quote there we felt calm regulated and full of joy and further developments are also

happening at read Museum yes I'll just explain why we had a big picture of a um an iceberg that's because that's our next exhibition coming up um by Julian artist Julian

greater called Arctic Mirage and not just do Museum's my way breakout space um we wanted to commission an artist that we know Peter Doyle to um create

some music with neurode Divergent pupils at local schools and then hopefully actually run a workshop for some of our families so we're just in the process of commissioning that um that would be

lovely and and we obiously want to continue with our breakout space and then we're also go we're continually testing so we're also going to try um the M model as well how that works for

us on a Monday um um when we're normally closed just so we can talk directly to the feedback and and and tell them a bit more about our Saturday offer um but

yeah we and just to add we've also got the staff staff training um coming up that on Monday looking forward totis and B sh to help um because I've noticed

with this conference I was it's was a lot about um yeah find I'm quite interested in looking into the staff training side of it and the on the back of that that we've had a few members of

the team who felt brave enough to come forward and say then neuro Divergence so obviously interested in exploring that a little bit further as well than um and the off is also development

developing with with schools and um we've done a lot of work with our school's partner Addington school um and classes of visits to see how that kind of flex flexible model of exploring the

museum might work for their students and just to share with you some sort of key learnings as we thought about them we're thinking for us for museums my way that

importance of working in Partnership with autism B has been absolutely significant and vital to the program um having a consistent approach to

Gathering data um and a flexible evolving approach just as our last speaker said about their work is has been really really important as well um and on that side you can also see some

of the the challenges for us obviously being very different museums um working in Partnership but having different parent bodies one the university one um the burough Council so you know it off

it's sort of different experiences really um but developing that joint offer but differently has been really really worthwhile um and yeah and also we're

just really excited to be here today to share the approach the Museum's my way pledges and to see if there's an appetite within this sector and if it can help in any way in terms of embedding some of this practice thank

you everybody oh thank you so much all three of you um lots and lots of information in there lots of place studies and examples of practice and there's again

lots of questions I think in the chat for you to go and have a look at and respond um and somebody also pointed out that Leeds and reading you know hey

we've got those two as our case studies