We are so excited to announce that we are going to present at the Advances in Women’s Studies Conference in Toronto in June! Charlene Tait, Director of Autism Practice and Research, and Catriona Stewart, Autism Advisor, are going to present on our online support programme for autistic women and girls.

This is a fantastic opportunity as it gives us the platform to spread the word about our women and girls online support programme to an international audience at a non-autism related conference, where many people may not be aware of autism and its impact on women and girls specifically.  

The title of Charlene and Catriona’s presentation is ‘Information & Inspiration: developing an online approach towards the empowerment of autistic women and girls’. Autistic girls and women have long constituted a marginalised group, within a marginalised population. Caught within an intersection of autism and gender stereotyping, barriers to accessing education, employment, health care and social inclusion are identified, with little recognition, support or practical resources in place.

The Right Click online programme, funded by the Scottish Government, was grounded in earlier research by the team and involved autistic women and girls from the outset.  Its initial aim was to gather information, adding to the knowledge-base and identifying areas to focus research and resources. Underpinning throughout was the goal of making this previously invisible population visible and facilitating their voices.

During their presentation, Charlene and Catriona will demonstrate how we have created an online programme to help support, inform and empower autistic women and girls.

We are really looking forward to the conference and the opportunity to engage with an international audience on such an important issue. We would also like to say a huge thank you to Lyreco who are so kindly sponsoring us to take this trip and present at the conference.

Find out more about the conference