ALT Talk by Jessica Dark, 2nd of October at 2pm on Zoom. Talk title: "Inclusive Research and Organisational Design for Autistic Participation at Work: A Neuro-Cognitive Trait Interaction Approach" Abstract: "This talk traces my doctoral journey, from my initial research exploring autistic women’s experiences of disclosing an autism diagnosis in the workplace through to the development of the three published frameworks that now form the core contributions of my thesis. Drawing on this journey, I will explore epistemic justice, ethical practice and the resources and conditions required for inclusive research, alongside a brief overview of the frameworks developed. I will conclude by considering why meaningful inclusion of autistic people in work requires three shifts in perspective across research and practice: from adjustment to design, from diagnosis to neuro-cognitive trait interaction, and from individual responsibility to researcher, academic and organisational responsibility."

ALT This is a poster advertising the Autism Research (ARCH) Seminar Series. The talk title is "The Embodied Experience of Masking in Autistic and Non-Autistic Women", and the speaker is Jagdeep Wadhwa-Brown (she/her), a PhD student from Birkbeck, University of London. The talk takes place on October 28th 2026, at 2pm GMT on Zoom. The abstract reads "I will present qualitative findings from a phenomenological study of masking in autistic and non-autistic women. Alongside these lived-experience narratives, I will outline how they feed into my wider PhD methodology, discussing how I plan to to explore the experiential, cognitive, and somatic dimensions of masking."

ALT This is a poster advertising the ARCH, or autism research, seminar series. This edition takes place at 14:00 BST on the 24th of June 2026 on zoom. The speaker is Celine El Baou (she/her), a research fellow and PhD student at University College London. The title of the talk is "Autism, ADHD, and Learning Disability in NHS Talking Therapies: What Can Routinely Collected Data Tell Us about Outcomes and Care Pathways?" and the abstract reads "I will present findings from two studies using routinely collected data in NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression (NHS TTad) services across England, between 2012 and 2022. The first study examines therapy outcomes for Autistic people with co-occurring ADHD. The second study aims to quantify whether Autistic people and people with learning disabilities experience barriers in the care pathway prior to receiving therapy.".

ALT This is a poster advertising the autism research (or ARCH) seminar series. This seminar will take place at 14:00 BST on the 27th of May 2026, and will take place on Zoom. The speaker is Mark Somerville (who uses he/him pronouns), a PhD student from the University of Edinburgh. The talk title is "The Lived Experience of Transgender Autistic People - A Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis" and the abstract reads "I will speak on the progress of a systematic review conducted to identify qualitative studies exploring the lived experience of transgender and gender diverse autistic people. A total of 26 studies have been included in the review and the data has been synthesized to develop analytical themes integrating the results of the different studies. Double marginalization, the intersection of minority identities, the value of the neuroqueer community, and multiple forms of dysphoria have emerged as prominent themes underlying the lived experience of transgender autistic people."

ALT This is a poster advertising the Autism Research (or ARCH) Seminar Series. This edition is taking place at 2pm on the 25th of March 2026 on Zoom. The speakers are Dr Ashlea Cromby, a postdoctoral researcher who is an alumni of the University of East London, and Dr Rebecca Wood, a senior lecturer in inclusive education at the University of Glasgow. The talk title is "Meme-ingful communications" and the abstract reads: "My PhD examined autistic communication through the lens of internet memes, using semiotic and cultural analysis to understand how memes function as a dynamic, accessible expressive system."

ALT This is a poster advertising the Autism Research (or ARCH) seminar series. This edition is taking place at 2PM GMT on the 25th of February 2026 on Zoom. The speaker is Alanna Shand (who uses she and her pronouns), a PhD student at King's College London. The talk is titled "exploring how autistic people leverage psychological strengths whilst compensating for difficulties", and the abstract reads "Our study examined compensation in autism (i.e., the use of strategies to appear neurotypical and manage autism-related differences). We developed two themes from interviewing autistic adults about their experiences; these themes captured, number 1, how strengths were used to compensate, and number 2, the duplicity of strengths and their impacts. These findings suggest that strengths may be leveraged to engage in compensation and highlight the variety of strengths endorsed by autistic people.".

ALT This is a poster advertising the ARCH (Autism Research) seminar series. This talk is called "Experienced Autism, Trauma, and Mental Health: Rethinking Adult Diagnostic Pathways" and is delivered by Howard Childs, a neurodevelopmental practitioner for Surrey and Borders NHS Trust. The talk takes place on December 10th, 2025, at 2pm on Zoom. The talk abstract is: "This study took a novel approach by positioning lived experience of high autistic traits centrally in an adult autism assessment service evaluation. The results contribute to population derived data on co-occurrences of mental health for autistic adults and the understudied area of childhood adversity. The findings support lived experience as vital for holistic assessment, suggesting adult assessment pathways need to be trauma informed and move beyond purely diagnosis based support outcomes."

ALT This poster advertises the ARCH (or Autism Research) Seminar Series. This talk takes place on the 22nd of October, 2025, at 2pm on Zoom. The talk is being given by Nell Fahey, who uses she and her pronouns, and is an MSc graduate. She is being introduced by Dr Gavin Stewart, who uses he and him pronouns, and is a senior research fellow. Both are at King's College London. The talk title is "Exploring the Social Experiences of Autistic Adults in Midlife and Old Age: a co-produced qualitative study". The first abstract box reads "Being connected to other people and having good access to social support are often linked to a better quality of life as we get older. However, autistic people often experience barriers to being socially connected. Our co-produced study set out to explore the social experiences of middle-aged and older autistic adults, with a particular focus on the types of social connections they would like as they age." The second box is too long - full alt text on Bluesky.

ALT This is a poster advertising the Autism Research Seminar Series, or ARCH. The talk takes place on the first of July, 2025, at 2pm on Zoom. The talk speaker is Eunhee Kim, a PhD student from Bournemouth university. The talk title is: Understanding health and wellbeing during menopause: A longitudinal comparison study between autistic and non-autistic people. The abstract is: We examined whether menopause representations (thoughts, beliefs and feelings about menopause) are associated with menopausal symptoms, quality of life and mental health in autistic and non-autistic people over one month. We found that autistic participants consistently showed negative menopause representations, which predicted more severe symptoms (menopausal, depressive, anxiety) and lower quality of life. These outcomes can contribute to improving awareness of menopause in the autistic population and developing autism-specific support for menopause.

ALT This is a poster advertising the Autism Research Seminar Series, or ARCH. This talk is called "Creative arts-based pegagogy (CABP) with autistic students: co-producing a manifesto", and is delivered by Kayleigh Doyle, a PhD student at the University of York. The talk will take place on May 28th at 2pm on Zoom. The talk abstract reads: "In this research, I explore how autistic young people and teachers feel about using the creative arts to teach autistic students in mainstream schools, and what they perceive to be barriers and facilitators. In this talk, I will briefly touch upon the findings from two systematic reviews, before discussing the findings from two empirical studies, a teacher questionnaire and student interviews. I will finish by outlining the planned next steps, a co-production workshop with the aim to develop a co-produced "creative arts-based pedagogy manifesto"."

ALT This poster shows the Autism Research Seminar Series, or ARCH. The speaker is Matthew Lomas, a PhD student at the University of Exeter. The talk is on April 16th, 2025 at 2pm on Zoom. The title is "How Important is Theory of Mind to Human Pedagogy?". The abstract is "The ecological dominance of humans has been often suggested as being underlined by our capacity for pedagogy (i.e. teaching), but the mechanisms the enable us to transfer knowledge effectively are not well understood. Theory of Mind (ToM, i.e. the capacity to consider the minds of others) has typically been framed as human’s “silver bullet”, however empirical research is lacking and this position is contradicted by accounts of teaching by neuro-divergent people, and studies of non-human teaching. This presentation will discuss research which seeks to evidence questions about the role of ToM in human pedagogy, using experimental designs that aim to contrast and characterise Autistic and non-Autistic approaches to teaching."

ALT This is a poster advertising the Autism Research Seminar Series, or ARCH. The next talk will be on the 26th of March, 2025, at 14:00 and on zoom. The speaker is Dr Sophie Phillips, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sheffield. The title of the talk is "autistic women's experiences of higher education". The abstract is "This talk focuses on research from my PhD considering autistic women's experiences of university alongside my own experiences of postgraduate study as an autistic woman. It explores topics such as conferences and belonging".