Increasing neurodiversity awareness through a community of practice

During this wildcard session, we will present the journey of the ALDinHE Neurodiversity/Inclusivity Community of Practice (CoP) up to the present time and invite new members to join. This will include why the CoP was set up, what we have achieved during our two years of meetings


Community Response
This session introduced and provided an update of the Neurodiversity / Inclusivity CoP that was set up two years ago.It drew on the University of Edinburgh's definition of neurodiversity, beginning with strengths-based descriptions of common neurodivergencies (dyspraxia, dyslexia, autism and ADHD), see figure 1.  session was accessible to people with a range of knowledge on the topic of neurodiversity and it was a collaborative and supportive environment throughout.' There was interest in hearing about the progress of the community of practice and resource development project that is underway.There was an invitation to contribute to the resource bank, which made one participant reflect on 'the resources I used as well as what opportunities there were to create more using my experience and knowledge.' Colleagues stated that 'The development of a resource bank is something keenly anticipated'.

Questions
As well as considering what the community would most like to see in the resource bank, is it possible/ necessary to balance this against comparison of most prevalent neurodiverse conditions?And signposts to established sources of reliable advice and support?
How can we find out more about the resource bank and how to contribute and where it will sit?

Authors' Reflection
Although the session had a relatively small number of participants, it was clear from the outset that they were passionate about ensuring an equitable learning experience for all students.A few participants disclosed that they were neurodivergent and / or their immediate family (children in particular), which initiated a mutually beneficial dialogue.Their lived experiences contributed to their understanding of neurodivergence, however, it did not appear that they regarded this as transferable knowledge when thinking about neurodivergence in higher education, which was evident from the survey results of 4.9 out of 10.
With no lived experience of neurodivergence ourselves, we had not previously contemplated the reality of how neurodivergence is supported in compulsory education, but through discussion with participants it became clear that their neurodivergent children were experiencing challenges due to lack of staff education and / or funding.To address this, whilst we anticipate the users of the neurodivergence resource bank will primarily be higher education staff, specific areas could be useful for all staff working at any level of education.To ensure a wider reach we would need to consider how this is presented and promoted.
The topic of disclosure was a contentious one.One participant who had disclosed their dyslexia diagnosis was asked to complete 'reasonable adjustment' paperwork each time they transferred to a new team within the same institution, rather than their new line manager accepting the information already provided.This lack of continuity was particularly frustrating and showed a lack of understanding within the institution.
This was further evidenced when colleagues were asked if their institution provided training on neurodivergence, with two-thirds stating no or don't know.A couple of participants were not keen to disclose their neurodivergent diagnosis due to perceived stigmatisation by their colleagues / institution, which led to a discussion of student non-disclosure and how this impacts teaching and learning.To ensure an equitable learning experience for all students, it is important that non-disclosure and non-diagnosis is catered for through 'anticipatory reasonable adjustments', which are a legal requirement for higher education institutions.This will be an area of focus within the resource bank.
From both lived experience and working within the higher education sector, discussions showed that the strengths associated with neurodivergence were not often foregrounded, instead the challenges and how to 'fix' these were predominantly focused upon.Despite this, the audience captured more positive descriptions of neurodiversity, including, 'individuals', 'uniqueness' and 'opportunity'.Writing haikus was a creative way for participants to share their own unique voice; Neurodivergent It's my life.It's my journey.

To my wonder brain
In answer to the questions posed by the participants (as shown above), the ALDinHE Neurodiversity/Inclusivity CoP have met twice since the conference, and upon further discussion will not be solely focusing on the individual neurodivergence requested by the survey participants (n-229) at the outset.This is due to there often being cooccurrences and not wanting to limit submitters to fitting their resource into one neurodivergent box.Therefore, we anticipate that the resource bank will evolve to offer a wide range of resources for each neurodivergence with many cross-overs.
Submissions to the resource bank will be requested via a number of different networks including, LDHEN, CoP members institutions, ADSHE and BALEAP.The ALDinHE website will host the resource bank, and it is anticipated that this will be live in Spring 24.If you wish to submit a resource, please do so via this link by Thursday 30th November 2023.We would appreciate it if you could spread the message far and wide throughout your networks, institutions, and to your colleagues, in the hope that we can create a rich and diverse resource bank which will be beneficial to many.

Figure 2 :Figure 3 :
Figure 2: Attendees were asked to describe what neurodiversity meant to them