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(Not written by me) The Bronze Age: Lucy Bronze talks candidly about neurodivergence and proving people wrong England’s most decorated female footballer has made net gains from not fitting the mould. As the Lionesses enter Euro 2025 as defending champions, Lucy Bronze talks about her team’s chances, life after her ADHD and autism diagnoses and why she doesn’t fear her career’s final whistle It’s one of spring 2025’s Mediterranean afternoons when the face of Lucy Bronze appears on my laptop screen. The blue of her Chelsea top is a dead ringer for the sky above the London training fields and she’s beaming for reasons unrelated to the weather. The night before we speak, her team trounced Crystal Palace 4-0, edging within touching distance of the Women’s Super League title – a feat they’ll go on to achieve a week later, beating Manchester United with a single headed goal from their star defender. Then she flashes another reason for the grin – a ring on her right hand. There’s no diamond, but for the athlete once ranked the best female footballer in the world by Uefa and Fifa, this slim black band contains something more precious: data. It’s part of an arsenal of performance-optimising tools – sleep-tracking, saunas, red-light therapy, supplements and installing an at-home ice bath – that the oldest Lioness is using to balance a relentless club schedule with staying at the top of her game ahead of England’s first Euros match against France on 5 July. A shared enthusiasm for the field Lucy calls ‘small gains’ sees me immediately disregard the first rule of celebrity journalism – delicately break the ice with impersonal small talk. Somehow, our ice-breaker segues straight to the 33-year-old’s ovaries and in less time than it would take to discuss her commute to work, I’m prying into her periods. ‘There’s a phase in my menstrual cycle when I’m physically capable of doing more and can train even harder, it’s insane,’ she tells me of her Euros prep, with an excitability most of us reserve for summer Fridays. ‘Men – they’re just this baseline the whole time. Whereas we can “periodise” training around the four phases of the cycle and get a lot of benefit. Research is quite low-level at the minute…’ Lucy – the sports science graduate – clarifies, in one of many times during our conversation when I feel as if I’m chatting through an article idea with a WH colleague. ‘But it’s like I’ve been given a superpower for a week.’ Euro vision Most would argue that Lucy’s superpowers are markedly more timeless. Beginning her senior career in 2007, she’s played as a defender for some of the best clubs in England – Liverpool, Manchester City and, since 2024, Chelsea – plus European powerhouses Barcelona and Lyon. (Adding Spanish and French skills to being raised bilingual by her Portuguese father, Lucy – real name Lucia – often translates for Chelsea’s international players). After Chelsea won the FA Cup last month, she became the first player to win the domestic treble – three major domestic competitions within the same season – in three countries and she’s won the Champions League five times (for context, my husband credits the elation of Barcelona winning the Champions League one year as the reason he proposed to me). An England staple since 2013, Lucy became a household name as a cornerstone of the team that beat Germany to win Euro 2022. Does having brought football home once already ease some of the pressure going into this tournament, I wonder, or pile on even more? ‘It’s a bit of everything,’ she reflects. ‘What we’ve spoken about [as a team] is that we admire what we’ve done in the past, being the Euros winners. But we’re a “new England” going into this and we’ll create our own history.’ The squad’s self-proclaimed ‘bossy mum’, Lucy hopes this new England approach will lighten the load for the new Lioness cubs. ‘There are people going to the Euros and it’ll be their first ever tournament wearing an England shirt. You want them to enjoy that. And I think taking away that pressure is a great way for them to do it.’ Ahead of the competition in Switzerland – ‘10 days when the only time we’re apart is when we go to bed’ (and yes, Lucy smiles, they do get a bit sick of each other) – squad contact stays within the group chat. Club matches ended in mid-May, when players were granted 10 days’ holiday. But while she suspects some of her teammates will give short shrift to manager Sarina Wiegman’s plea to ‘be sensible’ when they’re OOO (‘the girls tend to do what they want,’ she laughs), Lucy’s eyes are never far from the prize. ‘Yeah, I’m always thinking about the Euros,’ she confirms. ‘I can’t not think about it. Everything I do is to play in the Euros and win the Euros. Though people who know me know that I am a little bit obsessed.’ Gatekeeping I suspect that ‘little bit’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Lucy’s fixation with football began in Northumberland in the 00s, when the sport became her salvation. ‘I got bullied when I was younger and had to move schools,’ she shares, of the worst of that time. Dyslexia frustrated written tasks, but she was smart, competitive and a natural at numbers – with cognitive processing that was steps ahead. ‘All these things could have been seen or used as a strength of mine, but they made me seem like a problem. It was, “She’s arrogant, she’s bossy, she’s not listening to others.” I wasn’t listening to others. But it wasn’t because I didn’t care, it was because I knew I was right.’ Lucy’s mum, a maths teacher, suspected her daughter was neurodivergent, but lingering stigma meant she shied away from seeking a diagnosis for her daughter. ‘I read stories that said they’re the kids who need to be put in the corner, which is exactly what mum didn’t want me labelled as.’ Instead, she stuck Lucy in every sport available – and her child came alive. ‘Off the pitch, I couldn’t even make conversation because I was so within myself. But when I was on the field, I was the most confident person in the world. When you’re doing something you love, it brings out the best in you and that’s what I had as a child with sport. Sport would unlock the gates of Lucy Bronze.’ When her older brother, Jorge, let her join in with him and his friends playing football, something clicked. ‘I fell in love with football because I loved that [Jorge] did it – and then I loved being in a team. I was painfully shy and sport was the only way I knew how to connect with people. You already have a common ground of: you’re playing football and you want to win. You don’t need to say anything else; you don’t need to explain yourself. I think that’s why I love sport so much, because it was obvious what I was trying to do without even speaking.’ Fitting in If Lucy’s long career let her footwork do the talking, that changed in March. In a BBC interview with friend, former Lioness and another former WH cover star Alex Scott, Lucy revealed that four years ago – on the suggestion of an England team psychologist – she was tested for, then diagnosed with, autism and ADHD. Speaking with her a month after the interview aired, I’m struck by how content she seems. Has the diagnosis her mum tried so valiantly to protect her from had the converse effect of empowering her? ‘Yeah, 100%. Mum put it in such a positive spin that I never saw it as a negative. She’d say, “How you act is just you, you’re Lucy and that’s part of you.” But then reading the [the psychologist’s report] I was like, “Wow, this is me. This is why there have been so many times where people don’t get what I’m trying to say and how I’m coming across.” I always speak about being misunderstood – and I think that I was misunderstood by myself, as well.’ As enlightening as it’s been to understand the neurological root of her behaviours, it’s seeing that openness paid forwards that truly lights Lucy up. ‘In the game last night, a little kid ran up to me and said, “You’re my idol, because I’m autistic and I have ADHD and I’m so proud of you for speaking about it.” I thought, “He’s proud of me?!” He’s seven! Because he’s seen someone else [with neurodivergent traits], he thought it was really cool.’ He isn’t the only one; adults have been stopping her in the street – especially women, often late-diagnosed – to thank her for talking about autism. ‘Doing that interview is the biggest reaction I’ve ever had to anything I’ve ever done in my whole career,’ she tells me, a little dumbfounded. ‘Even winning things football-wise or getting a degree or anything that I’ve done that I’ve had success with wouldn’t come close to the reaction I had from that.’ Days after listening to the interview, I was still thinking about Lucy’s description of her twenties – a period knew how she spent making herself ‘feel uncomfortable so that others felt more comfortable’. As someone who’s often to connect’ felt socially awkward, I empathise at the labour of having to “fake” social behaviours to fit in: the discomfort of holding eye contact and trying to appear warmer (Lucy would copy the naturally gregarious 2022 Euro squad member Jill Scott); hugging (which she still hates). Does she finally have the freedom to be herself? ‘I do… but because I’ve gained respect for what I’ve done on the football pitch,’ she says emphasising the caveat. ‘My autism is my superpower that’s made me successful – it makes me obsessed with things, it makes me want to do things extra, it makes me think 10 steps ahead – but I wish it didn’t take being a successful footballer for me to be free to be who I am,’ she continues. ‘That’s the thing: everything in the world is set for one generic way. If you don’t fit that standard, where do you fit in?’ I’m learning that there are two ways: sit back and accept your lot or do a Bronze and sharpen your elbows. Suffering four bad knee injuries by the time you’re 18 would have blown the whistle on most athletes’ careers; instead, Lucy wrote a university thesis on ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries so she could learn how to do a full knee rehab. And frustrated by fashion’s blinkered representation of female athletes (‘it’s a long-standing thing in sport with sponsors and the players they try to push into the light that it’s more about their looks than their achievements,’ she critiques), in mid-September Lucy will front her second partnership with Aligne – the female-led British brand known for beautiful, accessible tailoring. As well as creating the perfect pair of pinstripe trousers to go from walking the dog to a meeting (featuring my love language: an elasticated waistband), the collection honours female strength. ‘I’ve found a space with Aligne where I’m actually celebrated as a footballer while being part of fashion… And at my age I probably shouldn’t be wearing tracksuits all the time,’ Lucy laughs. Second half Casual as you like, she’s brought up the elephant in the room: age. If anything underpins the ruthless brutality of elite sport, it’s discussing retirement at exactly half the age you can claim a state pension. As a writer, I have ChatGPT chasing my tail, but at least I got into my forties. Does her steps-ahead thinking extend to her own future? ‘I’m honest with myself. I’m still at the highest level, but I’m not as good as I was six years ago,’ she admits with the measured acceptance of someone intimately acquainted with the metrics. ‘I was the best player in the world at one point and I can’t quite reach that. I’m trying to learn to take off that “competitive Lucy” hat and be a little bit prouder of the things I have achieved.’ After losing the 2023 World Cup final to Spain, Lucy tells me, reporters immediately asked her if she’d retire – a level of scrutiny she suspects is reserved for women. ‘I think that’s something that for females is pointed out: your age, your looks, your biological clock. I don’t think it’s the same for men at all. But I quite enjoy the idea of, “Oh well, I’ll prove them wrong.”’ Talking to Lucy about her future, what strikes me most is the abundance of options. In 2020, interviewing thirtysomething athletes for WH ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, I recall their sense of plummeting into the abyss – destabilised by everything from losing their routine to having no idea what to do next. The following year, Alex Scott told me that she studied sports journalism towards the end of her football career to bat off the anticipated criticism that she didn’t deserve presenting gigs. But in 2025, something’s shifted. ‘I could get a corporate job. I could try to be part of the Federation or Fifa. I could help someone like Chelsea develop the women’s team,’ she says, reeling off her options. As for anything she hasn’t yet had time for? ‘I wouldn’t say there’s something I’m dying to do, apart from have a family. My brother’s got two kids and that’s what I’m most jealous of, seeing my niece and nephew. But there’s plenty of time for that – and what that looks like, I don’t know.’ Back in the here and now, it’s game on. ‘When we won the Euros, it was empowering to so many women who didn’t even like football,’ she recalls, of the bump the sport enjoyed following that victory – a bump that saw 1,500 new female teams register to play during the following seasons. ‘Seeing women succeed in “a man’s game” or “a man’s world” gave [a feeling of ] confidence and achievement. And for the men who loved football, but who maybe had a bit of underlying misogyny, they were like, “Do you know what, we love football and we’re so proud of these girls,”’ she continues. ‘I think football can help change society.’ When you’re thinking big, who needs small talk? Euro 2025: the defence is ready. Lucy Bronze’s collaborative collection with Aligne launches in September. Source: Women's Health - Earlier
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(Not written by me) Police arrested autistic activist in supported housing as part of Quaker raid operation Exclusive: Joe Booth, 23, says he has PTSD after arrest in which seven officers entered his flat when he was in bed Daniel Boffey Chief reporter Sun 22 Jun 2025 07.00 BST The Met police operation in which officers raided a Quaker meeting house also resulted in the arrest of an autistic climate activist at his supported accommodation, the Guardian can reveal. Joe Booth, 23, was in bed when seven police officers arrived at the flats for vulnerable adults in New Barnet, north London, to arrest him on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. The arrest appeared to be linked to his attendance at weekly meetings of Youth Demand, an off-shoot of Just Stop Oil that describes itself as a nonviolent protest movement. The evening before his arrest, up to 30 Met officers broke down the front door of a Quaker meeting house to arrest six female members of the group in what appears to be a linked raid. It is thought to be the first time that police had forced their way into a place of worship used by the pacifist Quaker movement. The raid has been heavily criticised by politicians, campaigners and religious groups. Booth, who claims to have never been involved in disruptive protest and to have previously attended one peaceful Youth Demand march on Downing Street, said the arrest had left him with post-traumatic stress disorder. He said the officers who arrested him appeared to be surprised that he lived in supported accommodation for vulnerable adults. After a support worker let the police into his flat, an officer had grabbed his arm, he claimed, and asked whether “I need to put you in handcuffs” before reading him his rights. “They did not know until they turned up that I lived in supported accommodation,” claimed Booth, who is a cleaner on the London underground. “When they arrested me, they said to me: ‘Joe, is this supported accommodation?’ They didn’t know. You would think there would be a system in place when they are going to an address to say this is a care setting.” Booth was in his pyjamas when the police arrived. They searched his bedroom and seized his work phone. He was then taken on a two-hour drive to Kingston police station where he was questioned and held for more than seven hours. He was released on police bail with conditions that included a ban on him entering Westminster. Booth, whose brother was allowed to attend the police interview as an “appropriate adult” due to his vulnerability, said: “They showed me pictures of protests that I wasn’t even in. They showed me pictures of [information about] upcoming events, only a few of which were actually protests, the other which were just meetings and free food events. So they didn’t tell me at any point what evidence they had on me and why they got me and how they even knew my face.” He had previously attended Youth Demand meetings at the Quaker meeting hall on St Martin’s Lane in London where attenders enjoyed a spread of jasmine tea, ginger biscuits and a selection of vegan cheese straws. Youth Demand had been planning a series of 10-minute protests as part of a “Shut Down London” campaign and Booth had handed out leaflets promoting the group’s actions in opposition to arms sales to Israel and a lack of action on fossil-fuel harm, he said. Booth, whose father is John Leach, the assistant general secretary of the RMT union, claimed: “I was only planning to spread news of the events. I’m not at a stage in my life where I’m ready to risk going to prison. “Like all autistic people, I can often struggle to understand certain messages that are told to me, which is why I often need staff with me when I receive letters, because I interpret things differently and I also can’t survive without structure and routine. So when that gets disrupted by ongoing issues that becomes a problem.” Booth said the arrest, which will raise fresh questions about the overpolicing of protest groups, had seriously affected his mental health. He said: “Every time I hear noise in the corridor, even from a distance, I get scared that it might be police, especially when there’s a knock at my door, especially if that knock at my door is early in the morning. “But even if it’s just from support staff or Amazon delivery or whatever, I get scared that it might be police. So my alertness has increased and my anxiety has increased. And I see a therapist every single week, because I always have and he’s in full knowledge of how it’s been affecting me.” Booth had previously been arrested in June 2024 on the same grounds after attending Just Stop Oil meetings, he said, but again released on police bail without charge. Booth claimed he had never been involved in their disruptive activities. “I remember specifically going to meetings and saying, ‘I have not been at a protest,’” he said. “It has left me bewildered.” It is understood that the Met believed Booth had been involved in disruptive protest in the past, which he denies. A Met police spokesperson said: “Youth Demand stated an intention to ‘shut down’ London over the month of April. “We have a responsibility to intervene to disrupt and prevent activity that crosses the line from lawful protest into criminality and serious disruption that adversely impacts the lives of ordinary Londoners. “The proactive police activity on Thursday 27 March and Friday 28 March took place on the basis of intelligence that those arrested were involved in conspiring to cause serious disruption. They remain on bail while our investigations continue. “Officers will always take into account an arrested person’s mental and physical health, carrying out full risk assessments to ensure they can be cared for appropriately while in police custody. Those processes were followed in this case.” Source: The Guardian
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Seems like Christian Mallon is not the only one playing this game... SRA and others obtain restraint order against law student 13 June 2025 Posted by Neil Rose The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and five government department have obtained a restraint order against a law student who has brought multiple employment claims against them. Zakir Khan has brought 42 employment tribunal claims since 2017, including 13 against the SRA, seven against various large law firms, six against the Ministry of Justice and five against the Crown Prosecution Service. Her Honour Judge Emma Kelly in Birmingham said there was no evidence that any have succeeded and many have been struck out, although the claimants said the defendant had indicated that two law firms settled claims with nuisance payments of £700 and £1,000. Mr Khan, who says he has a law degree and LLM in commercial law, typically alleges a failure by the prospective employer to make reasonable adjustments in relation to job applications he had made or claimed he wanted to make. He relies on a number of disabilities: ADHD, depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive personality disorder. The judge said: “The reasonable adjustments the defendant asserts he is entitled to vary from claim to claim but common themes include one or more of: replacing written competency-based application forms with assessed work experience; permitting the defendant to sit a written test to assess hypothetical examples in lieu of demonstrating competencies by already acquired experience; permitting the defendant to bypass a particular stage of the application process; being permitted to engage in post-application correspondence; ignoring grammatical errors in application forms; lowering the minimum competency threshold for jobs; not imposing a word limit on applications; obtaining evidence from an occupation psychologist; providing advance notification of the form of online tests; awarding the defendant higher marks at a particular stage of the application process and, perhaps most optimistically, providing a scholarship for him to undertake the then solicitors’ legal practice course.” HHJ Kelly was not convinced by Mr Khan’s claim that he would not bring any more claims, as he now has a job at the Office of the Public Guardian and was about to become a father. He also told the court he planned to fight the claims already issued and pursue them “until the very end”. He blamed the respondents and judiciary for the problems he had encountered with his cases. HHJ Kelly said Mr Khan had accepted that his intention could “possibly change”. She added: “The defendant’s conceded obsession and uncontrollable urges heightens the risk of a change of intention in the future… “His lack of objectivity and apparent inability to accept judicial decisions heightens the risk of him pursuing totally without merit appeals to the EAT within the extant claims.” Referring to Mr Khan’s applications to strike out the claim and miscellaneous relief, the judge observed: “He did, however, tell the court he had studied law a long time ago and couldn’t remember much of it.” She dismissed them all and recorded they were totally without merit. HHJ Kelly concluded the test for an extended civil restraint order was met. “The persistent nature of the defendant’s totally without merit claims and applications, coupled with the significant risk of further such claims or applications being filed if unrestrained, means that I am persuaded it is appropriate for the court to exercise its discretion to make a civil restraint order.” She ordered that for the next three years Mr Khan could not issue or present a claim in the employment tribunal or an appeal in the Employment Appeal Tribunal without permission of the court, in respect of any job application or application process. The claim was also brought by the Ministry of Justice, Department of Work and Pensions, Department of Business and Trade, the Home Office and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Source: Legal Futures
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Interesting article online called "Everyone isn’t ‘a little bit autistic’ – here’s why this notion is harmful" https://theconversation.com/everyone-isnt-a-little-bit-autistic-heres-why-this-notion-is-harmful-256129 -
BBC 2 series titled "Inside our minds" has programmes about various neurodivergent things such as dyslexia and ADHD. See link below for details: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bbnh47 Also available on iPlayer.
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A programme in five, fifteen minute episodes on Radio 4 titled "The Autism Curve", link below: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m002bswl Available on BBC Sounds and also it says on Radio 4 at 13:45 hours each day, on the week begining Monday 5th May 2025.
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The new SH movie will have Pyramid Head looking "cool". https://www.cbr.com/return-to-silent-hill-sequel-movie-pyramid-head/ Konami isn't anywhere as bad as Capcom is, in terms of milking Resident Evil over and over again. But Pyramid Head appearing in every SH thing just for the sake of it, is so unnecessary. There's actually a purpose to him being in SH2 as a whole (he shows up to essentially torment James Sunderland). ️ While I'm here, what does the upcoming game Silent Hill f have to do with the town of Silent Hill itself? Fog? Ghosts? Cultists? Don't just say or do things for the hell of it, Konami.
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Interesting article seen recently titled "What autistic people think should be prioritised in education for autistic learners" https://theconversation.com/what-autistic-people-think-should-be-prioritised-in-education-for-autistic-learners-250195
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Interesting article about autistic stimming titled "Autistic stimming explained – and why stopping it can lead to burnout": https://theconversation.com/autistic-stimming-explained-and-why-stopping-it-can-lead-to-burnout-252088
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Robyn's Rocket now has its own website - see Gigs I wonder how Robyn selects her performers? On the face of it, a mix of artists with and without learning disabilities/ and autistic and non Autistic artists sounds tautologous.
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The BBC article mentions CubeLynx, which I have posted about in an earlier thread: UK employers eye ‘competitive advantage’ in hiring neurodivergent workers
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Update: I reached out to Mayur Gondhea via LinkedIn after reading the above article and was invited to an interview at CubeLynx in February. Except that this "interview" consisted of being shut in a cubbyhole with a financial modelling exercise to complete within 1 1/2 hours. After 45 minutes I'd made no headway as it was completely unfamiliar to me, so I was allowed to leave. I haven't heard anything from them since.
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>post deleted - wrong thread<
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That link no longer works - try this.
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Shocking! I hope she gets well compensated. -
A "File on 4 Investigates" radio programme titled "Locked up: Woman held in mental health facility for 45 years" in which reporter Carolyn Atkinson asks why so many autistic people and/or those with a learning disability, including children, are still locked up and why successive governments have failed to meet their promises to move people from hospital to home. "File on four" documentary will be broadcast tonight 4th March 2025 on Radio 4 at 20:00hrs. It will also be available at the following link, for over a year: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0028jmh
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Seen on BBC news site "Autistic woman wrongly locked up in mental health hospital for 45 years An autistic woman with a learning disability was wrongly locked up in a mental health hospital for 45 years, starting when she was just seven years old, the BBC has learned. ..." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly43png991o
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Autism related petition open (until 25th August 2025) on the UK Government website by Kael Hopkinson called "Ban Applied Behaviour Analysis Therapy designed to reduce Autistic Stimming" the text of which is "The Government should ban Applied Behaviour Analysis Therapy (“ABA”), for the purpose of reducing soothing “stimming” behaviours in people with autism spectrum disorder. Reports indicate that people with autism spectrum disorder call ABA therapy “abusive” or “traumatic” and some may have c-PTSD as a result. Furthermore, research from the US Department of Defence concluded that ABA is not significantly improving outcomes.". The petition can be found at the link below: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/711392
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An neurodivergence related petition created by Laura Charlton, called "Fund more training for teachers on neurodivergence" is currently open on the UK Government website: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/708958
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Interesting article seen on the BBC website about a former church minister who was diagnosed with autism in his late fifties, "Former church minister creates art reflecting on his autism": https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyplxe6069o Some of Keith's art: https://keithdruryart.com/neurodiversity
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German software company SAP recruits autistic staff
Aeolienne replied to Aeolienne's topic in Beyond Adolescence
I should have stated that my original posting was not written by me and cited its source. Here's one copy of it, but given that it appears to come from Agence France-Presse (AFP) it was probably published in other places: News.com.au (11 June 2013) -
Hi folks, it seems I was last on here in 2012! I've two teenage daughters with ASD and am wondering what resources there are up in NE Scotland these days? There did used to be a local branch of the NAS but I'm struggling to find anything current. Thanks all.
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All the best in 2025 for you Gold MD and all the other users of this forum.
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Cheers!
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Some Autism and neurodiversity petitions currently open on the UK Government website: "Ensure needs of autistic people are met in any future pandemic response": https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702200 "Make autism training mandatory for teachers in schools to help understanding": https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702034 "Improve mental health services for neurodiverse young people": https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/703764 "Make Neurodiversity a protected characteristic in the Equality Act. ": https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/701538
