Shifting Systems: Neurodivergent Leadership in Australian Disability Policy and Practice
Tracks
Monarch - In Person Only
| Monday, August 11, 2025 |
| 1:00 PM - 1:20 PM |
| Monarch Room |
Overview
Alexandra Bignell & Cheryl Koch - Autism Self Advocacy Network Australia And New Zealand
Speaker
Ms Alexandra Bignell
Board Member, Asan Aunz
Autism Self Advocacy Network Australia And New Zealand
Shifting Systems: Neurodivergent Leadership in Australian Disability Policy and Practice
Presentation Overview
Three Key Learnings:
1. Understand how Australian policy frameworks—like the National Disability Strategy, NDIS Review, and National Autism Strategy—shape outcomes for neurodivergent people.
2. Explore how systemic advocacy and self-advocacy, led by lived experience, influence more inclusive and responsive policy.
3. Identify effective models of systemic advocacy and co-design led by neurodivergent people, including peer-led organisations, advisory roles, and inclusive ways of working that reflect neurodivergent communication and engagement styles.
This presentation explores the intersection of neurodivergent lived experience and systemic policy reform in Australia, highlighting key developments in disability policy and the growing influence of neurodivergent voices in shaping more inclusive systems.
We begin with an overview of current outcomes for neurodivergent people in Australia, including challenges related to education, employment, health, and participation in community life. These outcomes reflect systemic barriers, discrimination, and a lack of responsive supports for Autistic people and others with neurodivergent experiences, including those with ADHD, Dyslexia, and psychosocial disabilities.
We then examine how neurodivergence is positioned within major Australian policy frameworks. Drawing on the National Disability Strategy 2021–2031, the Disability Royal Commission (2023), the NDIS Review (2023), the Senate Inquiry into Autism (2022), and the upcoming National Autism Strategy (2024), we explore where change is occurring—and where policy continues to fall short. This includes discussion of visibility, diagnostic inequities, the medical vs. social framing of neurodivergence, and how different neurodivergent identities are included or excluded in reform efforts.
The presentation highlights how neurodivergent people are influencing these policy spaces through both self-advocacy and systemic advocacy. As leaders of the Autism Self-Advocacy Network Australia and New Zealand (ASAN AUNZ), we share lessons from the neurodiversity movement, including peer-led approaches, practical resources, and flexible formats that reflect neurodivergent ways of communicating and engaging. We also explore the emerging role of peer support networks as a national reform priority.
Finally, we outline how Autistic and neurodivergent-led organisations are driving policy implementation through advocacy, campaign work, co-design, and government advisory roles. We share best practices for inclusive policy development and implementation that meaningfully center neurodivergent leadership, lived experience, and rights-based approaches.
1. Understand how Australian policy frameworks—like the National Disability Strategy, NDIS Review, and National Autism Strategy—shape outcomes for neurodivergent people.
2. Explore how systemic advocacy and self-advocacy, led by lived experience, influence more inclusive and responsive policy.
3. Identify effective models of systemic advocacy and co-design led by neurodivergent people, including peer-led organisations, advisory roles, and inclusive ways of working that reflect neurodivergent communication and engagement styles.
This presentation explores the intersection of neurodivergent lived experience and systemic policy reform in Australia, highlighting key developments in disability policy and the growing influence of neurodivergent voices in shaping more inclusive systems.
We begin with an overview of current outcomes for neurodivergent people in Australia, including challenges related to education, employment, health, and participation in community life. These outcomes reflect systemic barriers, discrimination, and a lack of responsive supports for Autistic people and others with neurodivergent experiences, including those with ADHD, Dyslexia, and psychosocial disabilities.
We then examine how neurodivergence is positioned within major Australian policy frameworks. Drawing on the National Disability Strategy 2021–2031, the Disability Royal Commission (2023), the NDIS Review (2023), the Senate Inquiry into Autism (2022), and the upcoming National Autism Strategy (2024), we explore where change is occurring—and where policy continues to fall short. This includes discussion of visibility, diagnostic inequities, the medical vs. social framing of neurodivergence, and how different neurodivergent identities are included or excluded in reform efforts.
The presentation highlights how neurodivergent people are influencing these policy spaces through both self-advocacy and systemic advocacy. As leaders of the Autism Self-Advocacy Network Australia and New Zealand (ASAN AUNZ), we share lessons from the neurodiversity movement, including peer-led approaches, practical resources, and flexible formats that reflect neurodivergent ways of communicating and engaging. We also explore the emerging role of peer support networks as a national reform priority.
Finally, we outline how Autistic and neurodivergent-led organisations are driving policy implementation through advocacy, campaign work, co-design, and government advisory roles. We share best practices for inclusive policy development and implementation that meaningfully center neurodivergent leadership, lived experience, and rights-based approaches.
Biography
Alexandra Bignell is an Autistic woman and Disability Inclusion Advisor in local government. She is a policy specialist with a background in strategic planning, which she uses to drive systemic advocacy. Alexandra works across local, state and federal levels to improve outcomes for neurodivergent people and people with disability. She contributes to national reform through the NDIA Autism Advisory Group and the NDIA DRCO Forum. Alexandra is a Director of People with Disability Australia (PWDA), alternate Director of the Autism Alliance, and a Board member of the Autism Self-Advocacy Network Australia and New Zealand (ASAN AUNZ).
