Lydia X. Z. Brown

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Disability Justice is the Future of the Neurodiversity Movement

Disability Justice principles and practices offer radical and revolutionary ways of reimagining our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the communities where we live, work, and learn. During the global COVID-19 pandemic, Disability Justice offers urgent and vital interventions for addressing and ending the myriad harms of eugenics, the medical/carceral industrial complex, and capitalist oppression, all of which disproportionately harm autistic and other neurodivergent and disabled people. Disability Justice enables us to understand and examine interpersonal, systemic, structural, and institutional ableism and its impact on disabled people of color, queer and trans disabled people, and other disabled people at the margins of the margins. We have always been at the forefront of movements for justice and freedom, challenging assumptions about what is normal or healthy, demanding our right to exist as we are, building networks of care and solidarity for one another, and creating social and cultural transformations that enable us to experience rest and practice active love as co-teachers and co-learners.

Lydia X. Z. Brown is a disability justice advocate, organizer, educator, attorney, strategist, and writer whose work has largely focused on interpersonal and state violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people living at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, and language. They are Policy Counsel for the Privacy and Data Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology; Adjunct Lecturer in Disability Studies for Georgetown University; and Director of Policy, Advocacy, & External Affairs at the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network. They are also founder and volunteer director of the Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color’s Interdependence, Survival, and Empowerment. Currently, they serve as a founding board member of the Alliance for Citizen Directed Supports, presidential appointee to the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights, and chair of the American Bar Association’s Section on Civil Rights & Social Justice, Disability Rights Committee.

Peter Vermeulen

Thursday, April 22, 2021 – Morning Keynote

Autism and Happiness: from Neurodiversity to Neuroharmony

The pursuit of happiness: it’s what connects us all.  Unfortunately, happiness has received little attention in the field of autism. Outcome and effect studies, for instance, rarely take emotional well-being as a desired outcome. And when the focus is on well-being, it is often from a negative perspective, namely the lack of well-being and quality of life in autism.  

It is time to take a U-turn in our approach and change from an exclusive focus on what makes autism different (based on a clinical and medical approach) towards a shared and positive focus (we all want to be happy). In other words: let’s move from neurodiversity to neuroharmony.

In the presentation we will explore how we can increase the well-being of autistic people. We will talk about promoting positive feelings but also about life satisfaction and contentment as main sources of emotional well-being. And we will illustrate this with the story of Thijs, a boy we diagnosed back in the eighties and is now a happy adult. His story will show how we can move from neurodiversity to neuroharmony, an inclusive world where autistic and non-autistic people are living in harmony.

Peter Vermeulen, MSc, PhD, has worked with people with ASD and their families for more than 30 years. He is a Senior lecturer at Autisme Centraal, a training and education centre for autism spectrum disorders. Peter is an internationally respected lecturer/trainer and he presents all over Europe and beyond. Peter has written more than 15 books and over 150 articles on autism. His books include, “This is the title: on autistic thinking” (2001), “I am Special: handbook for psycho-education” (2000, revised edition 2013), and “Autism as Context Blindness” (2012), a book than won several awards in the USA.

Currently Peter is teaching, training and presenting all over the globe and in his work he focuses on many different topics, but some topics in particular: the autistic thinking (autism as context blindness), sensory issues in autism, psycho-education in autism (relationships, sexuality and coping with the diagnosis) and, last but not least: happiness & well-being in autism.

McAlister Greiner Huynh

Thursday, April 22, 2021 – Lunch Keynote

The Power of Accessibility: What Happens When We Change the World to Fit the Person Instead of Changing the Person to Fit Into the World

We all want success for the autistic people in our lives: success in their education, their relationships, their careers, their happiness. Yet, in our efforts to prevent autistic people from failing in this world, we have ignored the ways the world is failing them. In this session, learn from a neurodivergent educator–with a decade of professional experience working with autistic individuals–how an acceptance of differences and a focus on accessibility can make all the difference. After this session, you will be able to adapt your instructional approaches, educational support styles, and social-emotional interventions with the autistic neurology in mind to create a culture of acceptance, connection, belonging, and success for autistic individuals within the neurotypical-dominated world.

McAlister Greiner Huynh is a special educator in Raleigh, NC. She has been working with and learning from autistic individuals professionally for ten years, steadily growing in her passion for neurodiversity, disability culture, and radical acceptance. She received her Bachelor of Science in Special Education and Bachelor of Arts in English from UNC-Greensboro and her Master’s of Education with a concentration in Autism and Developmental Disabilities from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a Nationally Board Certified Exceptional Needs Specialist. McAlister is the educator behind “The Neurodivergent Teacher” pages on Facebook and Instagram, where she connects with families, professionals, and neurodivergent folx across the globe to share philosophies around teaching, self-advocacy skills, accessibility, and coping strategies.

Temple Grandin

Friday, April 23, 2021

Helping Different Kinds of Minds Be Successful

In this special presentation backed by personal experience and evidence-based research, Dr. Temple Grandin will provide a look into her personal experiences, including intervention, problems with sensory and over-sensitivity. She will also discuss the thinking process, the importance of developing strengths as well as the importance of work skills. Take away practical tips for parenting, teaching and learning from the individuals with autism in your life.

Temple Grandin, PhD, is a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University where she researches and teaches. Dr. Grandin’s popular books include Thinking in Pictures, Emergence Labeled Autistic, The Way I See It, and The Autistic Brain. Dr. Grandin is a past member of the board of directors of the Autism Society of America. In 2010, Dr. Grandin was honored on Time Magazine’s list of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World.” She was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 2012, and in 2017 was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Wale and Audrey Elegbede

Saturday, April 24, 2021

Rising to the Challenge – Unleash Your Superpower for Social Justice

Transformational social change requires passion, perseverance and truly original thinking. The Autism community with its focus on inclusion, neuro diversity, self-empowerment and genius is poised to make a significant contribution to social justice efforts.

Drawing on their expertise in systemic inequality, antiracism, autism advocacy, community building and strategic planning, Wale and Audrey Elegbede take us on a journey of new ideas and inspire us to actively engage in social equity efforts. Building on Wale’s TED Talk titled “It takes a community to eradicate hate”, Wale and Audrey demonstrate the power of community in advancing systemic change.

Wale and Audrey Elegbede bring a critical social justice, antiracism, and diversity leadership lens to engage us in a thought provoking discussion on the role of race, equity, and inclusion within the autism community.

Wale Elegbede, MBA, PMP is a TED motivational speaker, social justice leader and director of strategy management services at Mayo Clinic. Described as a community servant leader, Elegbede is president of NAACP Rochester Branch, Rada Distinguished Alumni of University of Wisconsin La-Crosse, and President of La Crosse- Rochester Project Management chapter.

Audrey Elegbede, PhD, ACC is Curriculum Development and Assessment Manager at the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, former Professor of Ethnic and Racial Studies, and active autism advocate. She is an educator, speaker, and professional coach, and she serves on state and local boards supporting the autism community.

They are the parents of three children, the oldest son of whom is autistic.