2008 Presenters' Bios
- Sarah Clemerson
- Katja Gottschewski
- Steve Graby
- Kalen
- Alexis Miller
- Dinah Murray
- Selina Postgate
- Roger Turner
- Yo
Sarah Clemerson
Presenting: Creating Sensorially Accessible Space
I am a landscape architect and support worker who is carrying out research to create places which are sensorially inclusive. I follow the belief that we are all on the spectrum and that sensorially accessible spaces benefit everyone.
Katja Gottschewski
Presenting: Inertia and Action in Music
Katja Gottschewski, born in 1970, is a German music therapist and musician living in Norway. She has given presentations about music and music therapy in various contexts, including a workshop about music at Autreat, ANI's (Autism Network International's) annual conference/retreat. Katja is a self-diagnosed and peer-confirmed AC who is struggling with procrastination and inertia on a daily basis.
Steve Graby
Presenting: Autism Rights Activism and Disability Rights Activism
I am a grass roots disability rights activist and university graduate aiming to bring together the practical field of disability activism and the academic field of disability studies. I am also active in the wider field of activism for radical social change, from a broadly anarchist, egalitarian/libertarian, feminist and ecological perspective. I am an autistic adult who went through childhood, mainstream schooling and university undiagnosed, before gaining a diagnosis in the final year of my degree, simultaneously with discovering the social model of disability and the disability rights movement. I have a blog at http://biodiverseresistance.blogspot.com.
Kalen
Presenting: What makes us tick and what makes us stick?
Kalen has been involved in the autism community online for over 10 years now as a listowner and member. She has been involved in Autscape since the beginning, serving as Chair and Programme Coordinator at different times. Kalen has presented about autism and other topics to both NT and autistic audiences on a number of occasions over the last 8 years.
Alexis Miller (on behalf of LARM)
Presenting: London Autistic Rights Movement UK (LARM UK)
28 year old person with Asperger syndrome. Graduated at Bath Spa (DipHE) in July 2007. Co-author of Aspects of Aspergers syndrome success in the teens and twenties. Member of London Autistic Rights Movement (LARM) since its founding in 2007.
Dinah Murray
Presenting: Collaborating for action: Autreach and the AutreachIT project
With Mike Lesser in the mid 90s, Dinah founded Autism and Computing, promoting the computer as a useful tool for communication and creativity for autistics of all ages. Most recently AC has campaigned for right of access to ICT for people in care; in 2008 she co-founded AutreachIT to involve autistic people in getting ICT into care homes. She edited and contributed to Coming Out Asperger - diagnosis, disclosure and self-confidence,( JKP 2006)
Dinah has campaigned for at least a decade to get professionals to pay attention to the views of autistic people and notice what's on the Internet; since Nov 2006 Dinah has been using Youtube to highlight and disseminate autism-friendly information, via the Posautive Youtube groups. With Ann Aspinall, she co-authored Getting IT: Using information technology to empower people with communication difficulties (JKP 2006) and she has written course material on the theme for Birmingham University's autism courses.
In 2008 she also curated the video Something About Us out of contributions by several autistic people, shown at City Hall in October, available at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1373348481069145464.
Selina Postgate
Presenting: Finding your balance - integrating action and inertia with NLP
Finally diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome in 2007, I've spent a lifetime perseverating on "what makes people tick". As well as acquiring much counselling and related experience I hold an IDHP Diploma in Psychotherapy Group Facilitation and am a Master Practitioner and Certified Trainer of NLP (neurolinguistic programming).
Roger Turner
Presenting:
Act now: make a website, start a group; write, share, publish
and
Collaborating for action: Autreach and the AutreachIT project
Roger worked as a self-employed computer software developer for many years, designing and developing user-friendly systems used by BT and the web application SurveyAnalysis.com. He received an "atypical autism" diagnosis 4 years ago. Experience as a research subject and an interest in cognitive science led to a poster presentation at Autscape 2007. He became car-free 10 years ago, and has cycled to Autscape with a bike trailer of his own design. Roger is a member of the AutreachIT group and has developed its website (www.autreach.co.uk) and the website of the Autreach Network (www.autreach.org.uk), used for online collaboration by Autreach groups.
You can find out more about Roger at http://autreach.backpackit.com/pub/1411782#roger
Yo
Presenting: Action to manage your own support
Yo was diagnosed (Asperger Syndrome) 7 years ago and has two children who are both also autistic. She has extensive experience of managing her own support and support for her children. She has employed her own support workers through direct payments and disabled students allowance for over 5 years. She also provides advocacy services to other autistic adults and children in North West England to assist them in obtaining and managing services. She also runs training sessions on Autism for local charities and businesses. Yo has a Masters degree, is currently working towards her PhD in Educational Research and regularly presents at academic conferences.