[Applause]
imagine what it would be like for you
right now to be picked up and to be
dropped into a culture or into a world
that seemed to be totally unbuild for
you imagine right now if you were to be
dropped onto a subway in the middle of
Tokyo imagine the huge amount of people
in your personal space at once no
personal space at all you can barely
move everybody’s talking at once so you
probably can’t even keep your thoughts
together maybe one person forgot to
brush their teeth that morning and maybe
someone else is wearing yaki perfume and
it’s just a really horrible environment
and you can’t wait for that train to
pull into the station so you can get off
as quickly as possible and get some
relief so the train pulls in and you get
off and everybody else goes about their
day but for you this is a new world you
don’t know what the next step is you
don’t know where to go next so you have
to try and navigate this world alone so
what you do a course is a logical thing
you ask somebody for help
you ask somebody for directions and
let’s even pretend for a second that you
speak a little bit of the language but
maybe when you go up and try to
communicate with somebody it seems that
they’re speaking very very fast maybe
there’s certain things like body
language and facial expression are
different so you’re not actually sure is
this person too happy to help me or are
they really annoyed that I’ve stopped
them so this stage you’re highly anxious
because you’re in an environment that’s
totally uncomfortable for you and you’re
not able to effectively communicate with
other people around you so what you have
to do you have to try and go it alone
you have to try and find signs around
the station visual signs so you can
navigate your way out and as you begin
to do this you begin to relax you have
certainty you’re feeling control again
but even as you get to the cusp of the
door of the train station even though it
may seem so obvious where to go next
if there’s no sign it’s not obvious to
you it’s like going back to square one
and imagine after you step over the
threshold of the train station this is
the world that you have to live in on a
day-to-day basis this is the world that
you’re expected to go to school this is
the world where you’ll have to try and
get a job and this is the world where
how society will measure your success in
this is what life is like for people
living with autism
because people who have autism live in a
world that isn’t really built for us
it’s a world where those of us with
autism may be communicated little bit
differently experience the world a
little bit differently and understand
the world a little bit differently to
other people the reason I use this
analogy is because I like to explain
autism as a different culture not a
right way of thinking or a wrong way of
thinking just a different way of
thinking in this story the person was
constantly adapting to this world but it
seemed this world was never prepared to
meet this person halfway what if I told
you one in six th people in the Irish
school system currently has a diagnosis
of autism let’s just reflect on that
figure for a moment sixty-eight people
think your family your friends your
extended family we all know a lot more
than 68 people do we always know
somebody who has autism yes are we
always aware of it no because autism is
an invisible condition and is it six is
it acceptable in our society that so
many people with autism are blocked from
inclusion because of how the world works
I know from my work and from meeting
thousands of people with autism that
every person with autism can succeed and
can make a contribution but people with
autism autism often face huge barriers
to achieving this or are excluded from
society’s definition of inclusion
because of how our society operates if
we take the word success if I was to ask
you to describe to me a successful
person I imagine most of you will cite a
very successful business person or maybe
a celebrity maybe somebody who does very
good in school or who’s amazing at a
particular sport or somebody who’s
really achieved the height of their
profession and I believe all of those
people may be good examples of success
but that’s all that they are examples
because I believe the only way we can
meaningfully in justifying inclusion is
that it’s a personal journey towards a
person reaching their own personal
potential fulfilling their own goals and
having contentment and happiness for
them there is no typical infusion just
as there is no typical purse
with autism I was looking at the word
success and when we look at the word
success it comes from the Latin meaning
to come soon after so what does that
mean what it basically means is that we
need to actually look at our people with
autism in Ireland on pathways that when
they follow those pathways when they do
their best when they show their skills
that they then have an opportunity to
fully participate in society when I was
younger a big movement from parents like
my own and others right across the
country was the need for people with
autism to have access to the same skills
as everybody else to have the
opportunity to participate fully in
their community to live in their
community for their whole lives to be
able to work in the mainstream labor
force that’s so important and it’s a
vital first step on the road to
inclusion but what comes after and I
think a statistic tells us very well we
know that eighty-six percent of people
with autism are either now in a
mainstream school or a mainstream class
or an autism class within a mainstream
school and yet what comes after that
eighty percent of people with autism
still experiencing unemployment this
tells a story of real change that is
required and I believe that is because
we have to actually look at how we
measure success having inclusion means
more than allowing a person access it
means enabling a person to reach their
full potential and to fully participate
in a meaningful way an example that I
would use is if we consider how we
currently measure success in the same
way as a society we have this Blum
definition we use blunt instruments to
measure perhaps the best of these is
leaving search results or league tables
our idea of a good student our idea of a
good school and yet we know there’s so
much more to happiness there’s so much
more to success it’s about friendship
it’s about being able to pursue what
you’re interested in it’s being able to
pursue and achieve your personal
potential whatever that might be and
whatever that might look like and yet we
know but this isn’t measured and this
isn’t how we actually understand what
success is in Ireland presently
the example that I would use is it’s the
equivalent of if we decided we were
going to decide what a happy home was on
the basis of its BER aging now of course
that’s pretty useful a good for a step
is to have the place nice and warm but
if that’s it alone that’s not enough
that’s not getting to the root of the
issue so what are the ingredients for us
to build a truly inclusive society for
people with autism we still face huge
challenges in the education system but
at least we have a structure to work
within but when people leave school
they’re stepping out into the unknown
often with very little support and we
need to ensure that our society has a
holistic approach to autism that engages
everybody in the discussion just like
Ireland is already done with issues like
mental health or LGBT there’s a need for
a real movement and there’s a number of
ingredients to this of course there’s a
need to give people with autism the
supports and the tools for them to help
to manage some of the challenges that
they face for themselves but the message
that we must take from our experiences
in the education system to date either
we’ve mainstreamed people in a very
Irish way which is of course we’ll have
people in regard let’s not talk about it
and we won’t change anything and that
simply doesn’t work what we need to
ensure is that as people move beyond
school system that Ireland moves beyond
autism awareness towards autism
understanding I’m aware that Mandarin is
a language I don’t understand it it’s
therefore it’s not a very good
communication tool for me I can’t
actually include somebody if I’m only
using the English language Ireland we’ve
come a long way we’ve all heard the word
but I bet we all have different images
in our head different stereotypes
different strange ideas of what autism
is but do we know how we can actually
communicate with somebody with autism do
we know how we can get the environment
to be actually correct for a person do
we know how we can actually enable a
person to fully participate I think the
answer to that is no and it’s not just
for teachers it’s not just for
psychologists it’s not just for doctors
if we want meaningful inclusion so
people can succeed in our society that
means everybody it starts with the
person who answers the phone in your
organisation and it finishes at the desk
of the CEO
it must be an entire
holistic process the second thing that
we need to do is we need to really learn
how to spell the word disability because
it’s spelt D is a bi L ity the majority
of the word is ability but we only talk
about the dis
indeed it’s often comfortable for us to
just focus on what the person can’t do
sometimes our discussion around people
who have disabilities literally just
becomes a list of the things that the
person isn’t actually good at or the
things that the person isn’t able to do
but every single person has talents has
abilities has contributions that they
can make I’ve already told you the
people with autism think differently
that’s another way of saying are
individual they think outside the box a
lot of people with autism are visual
thinkers a lot of people with autism
have specific areas of interest that
they can devote themselves to and learn
absolutely everything about people with
autism because of the way we think in a
black and white way often are extremely
loyal and honest workers so we need to
actually think outside the box and say
how can we look at the person’s
abilities and use them to address what
the person finds difficult not just stop
there the next thing that we have to
actually be prepared to do is to be
flexible and to be adaptable when this
country took a step towards being more
inclusive and enabling people with
autism to an eight to participate in the
education system those of us who had
autism had to make huge changes
I myself moved from a special school
where there was six children in a class
and three adults to a mainstream school
twenty-something students and me and all
this noise in this busy environment in
this uncertainty but everyday people
with autism are doing that put in return
there needs to be a little bit of a tap
turbidity the example I always use is
that it’s like when we Irish go on our
holidays and even though we might
maintain the local customs and we’ll be
very polite and everything when we go
out for dinner in a restaurant in the
evening we always expect the waiter to
be able to speak English we need little
ad adaptions to enable us to participate
there’s no typical adaption there’s no
typical thing you can do there’s some
standard things that people with autism
find difficult or yes and there’s some
standard programs that can help but
rather it’s actually getting to know the
person it’s encouraging them to feel
confident in their own skin and be open
with you about what their challenges are
and it’s being willing to think outside
the box about how you can do that how
can we employ someone with autism but
assess their abilities in a different
way how can we enable a person with
autism to come to school even if the
environment is uncomfortable how can we
ensure that if a person chooses to come
to our college of further education that
it’s not just that they come to their
classes and that they leave but they are
actually also able to make friends and
that there are college societies are
inclusive they’re also able to go for a
cup of coffee in the canteen because our
canteen is inclusive and the final piece
I think that’s really really important
for this is that we realize that each
and every one of us has a role to play
because each and every one of us
everyday meets somebody with autism we
have a scenario where we have thousands
of people with autism now the first
generation who are diagnosed as children
now reaching adulthood and we have a
choice to make
do we want to repeat the mistakes of the
past and leave these people to become
isolated to slip out of the education
system to remain unemployed to not be
able to participate or are we going to
meet the person where we’re at and are
we going to say that Ireland can become
a society that every single person with
autism can participation thank you
[Applause] [Music]