What ONE thing do you now know about ‘participation’?

First thing on the second day of the seminar, attendees were asked to think about one thing that they had learnt about participation from the previous day and to write it on a postcard. 

Later in the day, we briefly analysed attendees’ responses and identified the following themes: 

• Priorities of research – more funding towards the “things that autistic people care about” and valuing “different ways of knowing”
• Representation – of autistic people on boards of funding bodies “balance of autistic and learning disability”, children and young people (not just adults) 
• Ways of working – authentic interactions, transparency, “recognising everyone’s expertise”, ”learning to appreciate and value our autistic input”, understanding, respect   
  
• Degrees/different forms of participation – “more than one way”, “means many things”, “different flavours”, a continuum, autistic-led/co-led research  
• Opportunities/impact of participation – empowerment, “giving previously-unheard people a voice”, putting “social justice and ethics at the heart of research”, “better work”, different perspective 
• Challenges to participation – getting away from “us versus them”, power imbalances, “researchers are enthusiastic but unsure how to make it work”, a “lot of goodwill” but “what about those not invited or not motivated to engage in these discussions”