Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people. It also affects how they make sense of the world around them.
Autism is often defined by its difficulties, but many report it can also bring benefits. The cognitive strengths of some individuals may mean that they can focus on tasks without breaks in concentration, and individuals on the autism spectrum report the enjoyment they get from their unique way of thinking and perspective of the world.
Agenda
9.30am: Registration and networking over coffee
10am: ‘Understanding autism in the workplace”
Speaker: Jon Spiers, CEO of Autistica, the UK’s largest and leading autism research charity. Autistica both funds and campaigns for medical research to understand the causes of autism, improve diagnosis, and develop new treatments and interventions.
11.00: Further networking and discussion
11.30am: End
About Jon Spiers:
Jon joined Autistica in 2015, after several years as a consultant advising senior leaders in charities, pharmaceutical firms and biotech. He specialised in devising and delivering innovative policy, public affairs and media campaigns in areas including lung cancer, leukaemia, genomics, HIV, meningitis, infectious diseases and ADHD.
Prior to that he worked for almost a decade at Cancer Research UK, working his way up from a graduate trainee to Head of Public Affairs and Campaigning. His very first campaign was the introduction of smokefree legislation in England and Wales, a policy hailed as “the biggest step forward in public health for fifty years”.
He graduated in Linguistics from Cambridge University.
