Organisational Training about Disability and Neurodiversity
A BSA Early Career Regional Event
3 December 2026 (11am-5pm GMT)
Northumbria University, UK
About the Event
The slogan “nothing about us without us” is a cornerstone of the disabled people’s movement and has been adopted by the neurodivergent people’s movement too. However, the majority of researchers researching autistic people have been shown to hold stigmatising views about autistic people not informed by insights from autistic people themselves, suggesting that the results of much of this research might perpetuate these views (Botha & Cage 2022). Large charities also they too perpetuate unhelpful stereotypes about autistic people and do not seek enough input from autistic people (Abnett et al 2025).
Following conversations within the Autistic Research Network North (ARNN) where we shared experiences of organisational training about autism, this event seeks to continue those explorations. If large charities share damaging views about neurodivergent and disabled people when delivering training, this could have a knock-on effect on how neurodivergent and disabled people are treated within organisations. This has implications for our experiences of everyday life in community groups, in the workplace and in higher education. The question also arises of how to develop and deliver high-quality training to under-resourced organisations with members at risk of burn-out (Harris et al 2021).
The event is the first to explore the implications of inclusion/exclusion of activist paradigms for organisational training from a sociological perspective. It is of interest to sociologists with an interest in disability and critical neurodiversity studies or the sociology of work and employment as well as professionals with an interest in organisational training.
Speakers
- Monique Botha is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Durham University and a Leverhulme Research Fellow on a project entitled "Fragile Knowledge: Dehumanisation and Interpretation Bias in Autism Research". They are a Community Psychologist who specialises in social and developmental psychology with a focus on neurodivergence, equality, and mental health.
- Naomi Lawson Jacobs is an activist social researcher in Disability Studies who is currently a research associate at Manchester Metropolitan University on projects such as "Learning From and Enhancing Disabled People’s Christian Leadership" and whose interdisciplinary research interests include disability theory, critical neurodiversity theory, religious studies and inclusive and activist research methods.
Structure of the Day
A panel discussion with presentations by invited speakers on the state of play regarding current organisational training, and how paradigms and models developed by the disabled and neurodivergent people’s movements, such as the social model of disability, could shape organisational training in the future. This will provide a grounding in relevant theory, as well as case studies. The discussion will explore ways in which these models have been tokenised, such as a “neurodiversity lite” approach, and how this impacts on the message received within organisations during training.
A Networking Lunch
A workshop where participants will consider how training can be transformed, and ways in which organisations could benefit from the knowledge of groups led by disabled and neurodivergent people. The workshop will also encourage participants to consider directions for future research, and to forge connections with potential collaborators.
Participants will be invited to share lived experience of training, where appropriate, as well as insights based on research and professional experience.