Collaborative Learning: A Promising Approach to Shared Problem-Solving
9:50 - 10:20 a.m.
Our first session will start with a 30-minute presentation by Dr. Clif Conrad and Todd Lundberg, educational researchers at UW-Madison, who have studied ways for groups to engage more effectively and developed what they call the shared problem-solving model, as described in their book Learning with Others. They will then join a 30-minute conversational circle along with other stakeholders, including autistic-adult and non-autistic parent participants, for an exploration of how their approach may apply to autism-advocacy efforts.
The audience as a whole will then be invited to participate in this conversation for the following hour. During this community conversation, you are strongly encouraged to share experiences, ask questions, point out problems, propose ideas, and otherwise participate in exploring how shared problem-solving may be of use for bringing autistic adults and non-autistic allies, supporters, and influencers together to create the large-scale social change that autistic adults badly need.
Workplace Culture & Conflict: A Primer for Autistic Adults & Allies 12:45 - 1:15 p.m.
Our second session will start with a 30-minute presentation about workplace advocacy strategies that have succeeded for other historically excluded groups, delivered by culture-and-conflict consultant Diana Pastrana, who identifies and addresses workplace issues for marginalized people, particularly in the LGBTQ community. She will then join a 30-minute conversational circle along with other stakeholders, including members of the Greater Madison Area Society for Human Resource Management, to explore how employment systems in our area could be changed, since employment issues currently present major challenges to most autistic adults.
The audience as a whole will then be invited to participate in this conversation for the following hour. During this community conversation, you are strongly encouraged to share experiences, ask questions, point out problems, propose ideas, and otherwise participate on the topic of employment-related challenges faced by autistic adults, including job interviews, workplace politics, inadequate or disregarded accommodations, unfair discrimination, and general misunderstanding and devaluation by coworkers.
Crisis Supports and Suicide Prevention for Autistic People 2:55 - 3:25 p.m.
Our third and final session will start with a 30-minute presentation about autism and suicidality by Lisa Morgan, who is both a nationally recognized expert on suicide and an autistic self-advocate. She will then join a 30-minute conversational circle along with other stakeholders, including members of local mental-health organizations, to discuss the kinds of changes that can or should happen in order to make mental-health supports more accessible and more effective for autistic adults.
The audience as a whole will then be invited to participate in this conversation for the following hour. During this community conversation, you are strongly encouraged to share experiences, ask questions, point out problems, propose ideas, and otherwise participate on the topic of mental-health-related challenges faced by autistic adults. While this session does have suicidality as a major focus, this is not the only focus, and other important topics in this conversation may include diagnostic barriers, therapies that are not customized to autistic needs, lack of adequate provider training about autistic adults, financial barriers, or various other problems concerning access to effective mental-health support for autistic adults in our area.