The presentation will outline how the Creating Autism-Friendly Communities (CAFC), an initiative of Weeroona Association in Gympie QLD and supported through a National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) grant, is taking the next step in supporting inclusive local workplaces and communities.
In Australia, autistic people face some of the highest unemployment rates of any group, highlighting a clear gap between talent and opportunity. In response, CAFC will roll out free neurodiversity awareness training for local community organisations, education providers and businesses in from April until October 2026, supporting workplaces and the community to become more welcoming and accessible for people with autism. Building on its existing peer support networks and programs like the Job Skills Program (CAFC initiative for access to employment), the next phase focuses on working directly with organisations to embed practical, neuro-affirming approaches to access, recruitment and inclusion.
What’s different? Our approach is co-designed, supported by a range of assessment and feedback strategies to make sure that the neuro diverse community is involved, heard and seen.
What have we learnt over the course of the project?
To identify individual’s, strengths and talents is a powerful driver for change.
The initiatives uncovered a significant need for a range of peer support and capacity building workshops in the Gympie area.
Neuro -divergent individuals deserve the opportunity to change the narrative from Dis…ability to focus on strengths and abilities.

As awareness of neurodivergence grows across society and workplaces, many adults are receiving diagnoses later in life and gaining new insight into how they think, learn and experience the world. Current estimates suggest that approximately 15 to 20% of the population is neurodivergent, meaning that in most workplaces at least one in five employees may experience work environments differently.
For organisations, this growing awareness has practical implications. Many workplace systems were developed without consideration of cognitive diversity, which can unintentionally create barriers in areas such as communication, sensory environments, task organisation and workplace expectations.
This presentation introduces the Attuned Workplaces framework, developed through more than a decade of organisational leadership and workplace reflection. Attunement refers to recognising how employees experience their work environment and designing organisational systems that support both contribution and wellbeing.
The framework identifies eight areas of workplace attunement that influence how employees experience organisations: safety, sensory needs, communication, learning styles, autonomy, relationships, environment and growth. These domains provide a structure for organisational reflection and are supported through workplace surveys that allow employees and organisations to assess how these areas are currently experienced.
Survey insights can reveal strengths, misunderstandings and environmental barriers, helping organisations identify practical strategies that strengthen workplace functioning. Attuned workplaces recognise that organisations must support both people and performance. Leaders often navigate a balance between staff wellbeing, organisational sustainability and working within external systems such as funding structures and regulation.
By examining workplace experiences across these eight areas, organisations can identify opportunities to strengthen communication, improve environmental fit and support diverse ways of working. Attuned workplaces create conditions where neurodivergent employees can contribute their strengths while organisations maintain engagement, retention and long term sustainability, resilience and organisational effectiveness.

Fictional utopic representation has the potential to contribute to real-world differences for autistic people and communities by reframing conceptions of autism and imagining non-disabling societies. This creative writing research project adapts Levitas’ ‘utopia as method’ to highlight the diversity of autistic experiences and needs and to produce fiction that reframes and reimagines autistic community. The primary premise of utopia as method is pursuing a better way of being at the societal level by reconstructing society through imagination. There are three ‘modes’ to this method, which move from insight to impact. The first involves an analysis of already-imagined utopia by identifying and reconfiguring utopic fragments; the second consists of investigating individual subjectivities, how they interact with and understand utopia and each other, and what possibilities utopia opens up for them; and the third comprises imagining a detailed, concrete and specific social and institutional design.

This workshop will follow the modes of utopia as method, beginning with an analysis of (autistic) utopic fragments within utopic and autistic literature. Audience members will then have the opportunity to employ their own lived experiences, insights and desires in an exercise of utopic thinking. Should they wish to contribute their imaginings, these will provide springboards from which to investigate diverse individual autistic subjectivities in utopia and, along with interviews, will supplement the creative production at the heart of the research project, a novel, through which a concrete design for a diverse autistic utopia will be imagined.

Through this process, audience members will be able to put utopia as method into practice and, in doing so, reframe the way autism is thought about, in accordance with premises of the social model of disability, by imagining a society in which autistic brains are the norm and autistic people are not systematically disabled by social structures and expectations.

Many professionals want to support autistic and neurodivergent children ethically, but feel uncertain about how to practise behaviour support without relying on compliance-based, reward–consequence, or ABA-informed approaches. This interactive workshop provides a clear, practical framework for understanding and responding to behaviour in ways that are neuroaffirming, trauma-informed, and sustainable.

Participants will be guided through a step-by-step approach to understanding behaviour as communication, looking beyond surface behaviours to explore sensory load, unmet needs, environmental demands, relational safety, trauma history, and burnout. Using real-world examples, participants will learn how adult responses and environments can either escalate distress or support regulation and belonging.

The workshop focuses on how to apply this understanding in everyday settings. Participants will practise identifying likely drivers of behaviour, selecting supportive responses, and making simple environmental or interactional adjustments that reduce distress without removing autonomy. Attention will also be given to professional burnout, including how masking, cognitive load, and moral distress impact neurodivergent and non-neurodivergent professionals alike.

This session is intentionally practical and reflective, equipping participants with tools they can use immediately while encouraging ethical, compassionate practice that supports both children and the adults around them.

Neurodivergent clinicians have always been part of the healthcare workforce, yet their experiences often remain unseen, shaped by masking, misunderstanding, and systems designed around neurotypical norms. In HIV and sexual health settings, where stigma, vulnerability, and emotional complexity are embedded, these invisible dynamics can have profound impacts on both clinician wellbeing and patient care.

This poster presentation draws on the lived experience of a neurodivergent Clinical Nurse Specialist working in HIV and sexual health. As an autistic and ADHD clinician, I reflect on how neurodivergence has shaped my professional journey, clinical practice, and emerging leadership capacity. Rather than framing difference as deficit, this work explores how neurodivergent ways of thinking can enhance empathy, pattern recognition, communication, and trauma-aware care when appropriately supported.

Through reflective storytelling, the poster traces key moments of identity, growth, and challenge, including late diagnosis, navigating feedback and rejection sensitivity, and learning to build clinical practice around my neurodivergent brain rather than forcing it to conform to rigid systems. I share practical strategies such as scaffolds, structured communication, reflective supervision, and environmental adjustments that support safe, consistent, person-centred care.

The presentation positions lived experience leadership as a catalyst for cultural change, demonstrating how personal narratives can reduce stigma, foster understanding, and invite more inclusive workplace practices. By highlighting the invisible labour of neurodivergent clinicians, this work challenges traditional notions of professionalism and calls for healthcare environments that recognise cognitive diversity as integral to insight, safety, and sustainable practice.

Delegates will leave with a deeper understanding of neurodivergent experiences in clinical settings, alongside practical insights into how storytelling, reflective practice, and neurodiversity-affirming approaches can strengthen workforce sustainability and quality of care.

The importance of Workplace Learning (WPL) in higher education is well-documented, providing students the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge in practical settings, significantly contributing to better graduate outcomes. However, despite a strong move towards Universal Design for Learning and inclusive teaching practices in higher education, many neurodivergent learners, such as those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), continue to encounter barriers that impact their wellbeing, sense of belonging and ability to adequately demonstrate their capabilities. Through my work supporting neurodivergent students in Medical Science, I have observed challenges related to sensory environments, social and communication expectations of the workplace, inconsistent supervisor understanding, and a lack of flexibility within the industry. As a non-neurodivergent ally, these observations have shaped this developing project, which seeks to explore the placement experiences of neurodivergent learners.

This presentation will share early insights informed by both student experiences and an ongoing literature review. Rather than presenting fixed findings, it will offer an evolving, reflective inquiry into inclusive and flexible approaches that have the potential to strengthen student wellbeing and improve placement and graduate outcomes.

Aligned with NWC26’s commitment to transforming systems and amplifying neurodivergent voices, this session invites a critical reflection on assumptions embedded within traditional education models. It highlights opportunities to move beyond procedural approaches to WPL toward responsive, neuro-affirming, student-centered practices that promote safety, autonomy, and that promote success. This presentation is intended to start a conversation—one that will continue to evolve as further research, literature, and lived experiences deepen our understanding.

Neurodivergent people contribute critical strengths to workplaces, yet consistently experience higher psychosocial risk and poorer mental health outcomes than their neurotypical peers. These disparities are often misunderstood as individual vulnerability rather than a predictable outcome of how work is designed. Our whitepaper on mental health and neurodivergence in the workplace challenges this narrative through data, research, and lived experience.

Drawing on national workplace mental health data from SuperFriend’s Thriving Workplaces Index, alongside the expertise of neuroinclusion specialist Vicky Little and mental health expert Stephanie Thompson, and enriched by firsthand insights from neurodivergent workers, the whitepaper examines where and why current workplace systems fall short.

The findings reveal consistent and concerning patterns: neurodivergent employees are significantly more likely to report exposure to harmful job demands, low role clarity, poorly managed organisational change, and inadequate management support. Importantly, the evidence makes clear that these risks are not inherent to neurodivergence itself, but are the predictable consequence of environments designed around narrow stereotypical norms. When employers intentionally prioritise psychological safety and inclusive work design, the benefits enable neurodivergent employees to thrive whilst also creating conditions in which all employees can feel safe and supported.

This session will translate the whitepaper’s findings into practical, preventative actions leaders and workplaces can take now, highlighting the importance of wellbeing and universal design in the workplace. Participants will be guided through evidence-informed strategies for designing work that reduces psychosocial risk, strengthens psychological safety, and supports neurodivergent wellbeing, without relying on individual disclosure or reactive adjustments.

This presentation aims to reframe neuroinclusion as a core component of safe workplaces where all employees are supported to thrive, rather than a discretionary inclusion initiative. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how inclusive design improves mental health outcomes for neurodivergent people while creating safer, more effective workplaces for everyone.

Neurodivergent burnout is a pervasive, yet under-theorised phenomenon experienced by neurodivergent individuals because of sustained demands on self-regulation, executive functioning, and adaptive masking required from living in a Neurotypical world. This model introduces the Neurodivergent Burnout Cycle as a novel therapeutic model that conceptualises burnout as a cyclical and biologically driven process rather than a linear failure of coping or resilience. Central to this model is the premise that neurodivergent individuals possess a finite capacity for regulation. During periods of relative regulation, individuals may demonstrate high executive functioning, effective masking, social engagement, productivity in work or education, and the ability to manage co-occurring challenges such as chronic pain, pathological demand avoidance (PDA), and rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD).

As regulatory capacity becomes depleted, early signs of burnout emerge, including increased fatigue, irritability, cognitive and emotional strain, rising sensory sensitivity, withdrawal from social demands, and increased reliance on stimming. If depletion continues without adequate restoration, the cycle culminates in a meltdown phase characterised by significant emotional dysregulation, task paralysis, loss of verbal communication, abandonment of self-care, heightened sensory overwhelm, and exacerbation of mental and physical health symptoms.

Unlike traditional deficit-based models, the Neurodivergent Burnout Cycle reframes meltdowns/burnout as a necessary and adaptive regulatory reset rather than a pathological event. While supportive strategies may extend the regulated phase and slow depletion, the model posits that meltdowns are an inevitable and essential component of restoring regulation. This framework offers clinicians, educators, and caregivers a strengths-based lens for understanding burnout, reducing stigma, and developing interventions that prioritises shame reduction, accommodation, and compassionate recovery aligned with neurodivergent physiology.

Clinical placements are a critical component of nursing education, enabling students to apply theoretical knowledge in complex healthcare environments. For neurodivergent nursing students, including those with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), clinical environments can present unique challenges related to sensory demands, communication expectations, and rapidly changing workflows. Much of the existing literature, however, approaches neurodivergence through a medical or deficit-based lens, focusing on barriers rather than strengths or effective support strategies.

This honours research explores how Clinical Nurse Educators (CNEs) can support neurodivergent nursing students during clinical placements using a strengths-based perspective. The study combines findings from a systematic review of existing literature with preliminary qualitative data from in-depth interviews with Clinical Nurse Educators. Using a positive deviance methodology, the research seeks to identify educators who demonstrate particularly effective practices and examine what they do differently to support neurodivergent learners.

Early findings suggest that successful support often centres on relational and practical strategies rather than formal accommodations alone. These include building psychologically safe educator–student relationships, providing clear and explicit communication, breaking down complex tasks, and creating predictable learning structures within busy clinical environments. Educators who demonstrate awareness of neurodiversity and adopt flexible teaching approaches appear better able to recognise and harness students’ strengths, including attention to detail, pattern recognition, and strong commitment to patient care.

This presentation will translate these findings into practical insights for educators and clinical placement coordinators. By highlighting strengths-based strategies already working in practice, the session aims to provide realistic approaches that Clinical Nurse Educators can apply to better support neurodivergent nursing students. Strengthening inclusive clinical education practices has the potential to improve student wellbeing, learning outcomes, and retention while contributing to a more diverse and capable nursing workforce.