Designing Genuine Inclusion: A Neuroaffirming Aquatic Therapy Model for Safety, Regulation, and Participation
Tracks
Marquis - In-Person Only
| Monday, September 28, 2026 |
| 2:45 PM - 3:05 PM |
| Marquis Room |
Overview
Carol Jennings, Waterwombats
Key Learnings
1. WaterWombats shows what designed inclusion looks like in practice. The WaterWombats model was built in response to community need and ongoing family feedback, creating aquatic environments that are predictable, sensory-informed, and relationally safe for neurodivergent children and young people.
2. At WaterWombats, aquatic settings become a positive place to learn life-saving water safety skills while also supporting confidence, communication, regulation, and participation for children often excluded from mainstream programs.
3. Community-embedded models create real impact. WaterWombats demonstrates how locally grounded, interdisciplinary services can reduce exclusion, respond to high drowning risk in autistic children, and create sustainable pathways for learning, wellbeing, and belonging.
Speaker
Ms Carol Jennings
Managing Director
Waterwombats
Designing Genuine Inclusion: A Neuroaffirming Aquatic Therapy Model for Safety, Regulation, and Participation
Presentation Overview
Genuine inclusion for neurodivergent children and young people requires more than access to services; it requires environments and practices intentionally designed around neurodivergent bodies, communication styles, sensory processing, and relational safety. When inclusion is reduced to participation in spaces not built for difference, it can result in exclusion or harm—particularly within health, recreation, and aquatic settings. For autistic children, this failure has serious consequences, contributing to disproportionately high rates of drowning and absconding linked to sensory seeking, limited risk awareness, and exclusion from accessible water safety education.
This presentation examines genuine inclusion in practice through the WaterWombats model—a neuroaffirming, allied health–led aquatic therapy framework developed in response to community need, family feedback, and systemic exclusion. Operating across four sites and supporting nearly 150 families, WaterWombats integrates aquatic therapy, exercise physiology, counselling, social work, play therapy, and expressive arts therapy within intentionally designed, sensory-informed aquatic environments. Water is positioned not as a recreational add-on, but as a therapeutic and life-saving medium for developing regulation, safety, communication, and participation.
Drawing on practice-embedded evidence, clinical outcomes, and emerging doctoral research concepts, the session explores inclusion across three interconnected domains: environmental inclusion, examining how physical and sensory design support regulation, predictability, and skill acquisition; relational inclusion, highlighting the role of therapeutic consistency, trust, and attuned relationships for children with trauma histories, selective mutism, or high anxiety; and systemic inclusion, considering how service design, workforce capability, and funding structures enable or restrict participation.
The presentation demonstrates how allied health–led aquatic therapy can simultaneously address drowning risk, absconding behaviours, sensory regulation, motor planning, communication, and social connection—particularly for children unable to engage in traditional clinical or mainstream aquatic settings. Through centring neurodivergent experience and real-world outcomes, WaterWombats is presented as a model for designing and sustaining genuine inclusion.
This presentation examines genuine inclusion in practice through the WaterWombats model—a neuroaffirming, allied health–led aquatic therapy framework developed in response to community need, family feedback, and systemic exclusion. Operating across four sites and supporting nearly 150 families, WaterWombats integrates aquatic therapy, exercise physiology, counselling, social work, play therapy, and expressive arts therapy within intentionally designed, sensory-informed aquatic environments. Water is positioned not as a recreational add-on, but as a therapeutic and life-saving medium for developing regulation, safety, communication, and participation.
Drawing on practice-embedded evidence, clinical outcomes, and emerging doctoral research concepts, the session explores inclusion across three interconnected domains: environmental inclusion, examining how physical and sensory design support regulation, predictability, and skill acquisition; relational inclusion, highlighting the role of therapeutic consistency, trust, and attuned relationships for children with trauma histories, selective mutism, or high anxiety; and systemic inclusion, considering how service design, workforce capability, and funding structures enable or restrict participation.
The presentation demonstrates how allied health–led aquatic therapy can simultaneously address drowning risk, absconding behaviours, sensory regulation, motor planning, communication, and social connection—particularly for children unable to engage in traditional clinical or mainstream aquatic settings. Through centring neurodivergent experience and real-world outcomes, WaterWombats is presented as a model for designing and sustaining genuine inclusion.
Biography
Carol is a dedicated community development and disability social worker. Her work focuses on access, inclusion and advocacy for improved services. Carol developed and created the WaterWombats Charity in 2021 to support children, youth and their families across the Canberra Region. She feels there is a long way to go with achieving true inclusion and is dedicated to influencing the change needed to realise this.
