Hi, I’m Rachael Maun, PhD student and researcher for IMAGE Autism. Since March of 2020 I have been doing all of my research from home and know how difficult this can be. I hope that you find the tips and articles included in this blogpost helpful! If you want to take part in my research,…

Dr Henri Pesonen from the University of Helsinki reflects on what it is like to conduct research to a given schedule and also publishing work as soon as the data is gathered and analysed. The entire IMAGE team has been enthusiastic about writing academic peer-reviewed papers ever since the beginning of the project in October…

Dr Mitzi Waltz from the Athena Institute at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam shares insights about the needs and wants expressed by these two key stakeholders during a series of workshops. As part of the IMAGE project, we had already asked careers advisors (CAs) and autistic students about their experiences of working together. This resulted in a…

My name is Alex, and I’m currently working on my Masters in Global Health at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Previously I studied neuroscience and psychology, but after working in different facets of the mental health field back home, my interests turned to global mental health.   After learning about the employment outcomes of autistic adults and…

It was the second week of March, and we had just returned from an IMAGE team meeting in Toulouse, fired up and excited about the co-creation workshop we had planned with careers advisors and students at Hogeschool Fontys in Eindhoven. Emails were flying back and forth—and then the first major COVID outbreak in the Netherlands…

Hey, my name is Chelsea Brüning and currently, I’m studying Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy in the master’s program at MSB Medical School Berlin. Due to some experiences I gained personally and non-personally, I’ve been trying to understand and find counter-measures against discrimination. In the last year of my bachelor’s program, I met Dr Timo Lorenz…

My name is Mona Algner and I am currently studying in the Master’s program Work and Organizational Psychology at Freie Universität Berlin.  Ever since I came across the concept of neurodiversity and learning about the psychology of diversity and empowerment in general, my passion for research on these topics was sparked. This is one of the…

On June 27 and 28, 2019, the interdisciplinary Hello Diversity conference took place at the Freie Universität Berlin with lectures from research and practice on the topic of diversity. During the conference, Dr. Timo Lorenz gave a lecture on the topic of neurodiversity with a focus on autism and work. He is also a suitable…

For the third transnational partner meeting we came together at the beginning of March 2020 in Toulouse (following the first partner meeting in October 2019 in Leeds, and the second meeting in June 2019 in Helsinki). We were roughly at the half-way point of the project and had plenty of data generated in our research…

The IMAGE project has a new research assistant in Leeds. Meet Rachael Maun, who has been helping us with data collection and workshops in the project. ”I’m a postgraduate research student at Leeds Beckett University and I’m working as a research assistant for IMAGE Project. I previously worked in a specialist Autism Provision in a Primary…

On Tuesday 23 January 2020, IMAGE Project lead Marc Fabri delivered a lecture on ‘Supporting autistic students on their journey through higher education: small changes, big impact’. The invited talk is part of UCC’s Quercus Lecture Series which promotes excellence in academia, sports, the arts and active citizenship. Marc was invited by UCC’s Autism-Friendly University…

It’s a new year and our Co-creation workshops are at full swing in all our partner countries. We are gathering information for our 3 intellectual outputs. But what has happened before that? Let’s have a look at the last six months of 2019. Partner Meeting in Helsinki In June we had our second Transnational Partner…

During January and February 2020, we will be running a series of co-creation workshops in the UK and we invite you to take part in one of these workshops. Together we will design an employability toolkit for students, training materials for university staff and guides for employers. Please join us if you are currently: a…

In a blog post for Emerald, the international journal publishing house, Dr Marc Fabri from Leeds Beckett University shares his thoughts on using participatory design methods with autistic adults, and how this can help build and support a community. This is based on Marc’s experience from running the Autism&Uni project (www.autism-uni.org) which focused on the…

When designing software for autistic adults their needs, preferences and characteristics have to be considered. In this blog post Marc Fabri shares his thoughts on how to approach the design one of the key outputs from the IMAGE project: An employability toolkit for autistic students. We know that autistic people typically welcome structure, both in…

The Université of Toulouse brings together the main higher education and research institutions in Toulouse and its region (23 higher education institutions, 1 university hospital and 7 research organisations), located in 11 cities in 8 French departments. Its ambition is to enroll at the highest international level at the academic and scientific level by promoting…

The IMAGE project has a new research assisstant in Helsinki. Meet Minja Lahdelma, who has been helping us with the data collected in the project! ”Hey! I’m undergraduate student majoring in Special Education at the University of Helsinki and I’m working as a research assistant for IMAGE Project. Like Juuso, I have a background in…

Take part in our multi-national survey and help us identify what changes need to happen so that more autistic graduates can gain employment after completing their university studies. We would like to hear from you whether you are an autistic student or graduate, working at a university, or you are an employer. The survey is…