2016 Presenters

2016 Programme Contents

1. Kabie Brook
2. Dr. Larry Arnold
3. Martijn Dekker
4. John Wilson
5. Peter Baimbridge and Daniel Poole
6. Marie Yates
7. Caroline Hearst
8. Hannah Ebben
9. Kay Locke
10. Olivia Astrid Pountney

2016 Presenters' Bios

Kabie Brook

Kabie has 25 years experience working with and for Autistic people of all ages.

Cofounder and current chairperson of ARGH, a collective advocacy, lobbying and campaigning group run by and for Autistic adults, Kabie is part of the Scottish Government Autism Strategy Governance Group as well as being involved with national and local organisations including Inverness Access Panel and as a local community advisor for Police Scotland.

Kabie also has experience of organising and speaking at events, including training workshops for parents and practitioners and is particularly interested in pandisabilty engagement, intersectionality and 'Autistic' as political identity.

Dr. Larry Arnold

Larry Arnold has a PhD in Education based upon researching the autistic community which he has inhabited since the late 1990s having formerly been an activist for disability rights before discovering his own autistic identity.

He has had a number of formal roles including being the first autistic board member of a British autism charity. He has a particular interest in the ethics of autism research.

He has been a frequent presenter on themes of autism and disability rights for over a decade and currently maintains a role as an activist for neurodiversity.

Martijn Dekker

Martijn is a 42 year old autistic father of three who divides his life between the Netherlands and the UK. He served on the board of Autscape in various capacities, including chair, programme coordinator and technical manager, between 2006 and 2015. Between 1996 and 2012-ish he ran an international support network for autistic people called InLv which turned out influential enough to be referenced in "Neurotribes" by Stephen Silberman. In 1998 he wrote a short paper titled "On our own terms: emerging autistic culture" which is still occasionally cited even now, naive as though it may have been.

John Wilson

John Wilson is an auty solicitor, presently taking an extended break. He ran his own law firm very successfully for many years before eventually the recession combined with others' lack of understanding of autism dragged him down. But he says he had a great career and prefers not to dwell on that last bit! He is going forwards not backwards. Now he wants to get more involved in autism issues where he feels his experience could be very useful. He has attended Autscape before and has spoken at Autism Con. This is his first presentation at Autscape.

Peter Baimbridge and Daniel Poole

Peter Baimbridge and Dr Daniel Poole are steering committee members of Autism@Manchester, the cross-faculty Autism Research Group at The University of Manchester. Daniel is a postdoctoral teaching assistant in the School of Psychological Sciences at the university and is neurotypical. Peter is autistic and CEO of Salfordautism, an advocacy and support organisation run by autistic professionals.

Marie Yates

Marie Yates is a published author, speaker and Director of Canine Perspective CIC, a social enterprise. Marie also has Asperger's.

Caroline Hearst

Caroline discovered she is autistic seven years ago and using previous experience qualifying as an art psychotherapist and working as a consumer advisor in mental health she developed autism awareness training for counsellors and therapists. She offers autism awareness training and consultation and facilitates a post-identification programme for autistic adults. She also founded AutAngel an autistic run community interest company. She initiated home groups at Autscape and co-ordinated these for the last three years. She serves on her local autism strategy board and the new “forum” set up by the NAS to replace its council of members.

Hannah Ebben

Hannah Ebben (pronunciation: 'Ebon') is an Autistic PhD student at the Autism Centre at Sheffield Hallam University. She studies the way in which people have employed the word 'autism' in their everyday life throughout the years, and especially how this has occurred in film. Eventually, she hopes to be able to facilitate new definitions of human diversity and practices of signification for fellow Autistic people in and outside academia. Born in the Netherlands, she received her diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome in 2006 and completed a BA degree in Cultural Studies and a MARes degree in Art and Visual Culture.

Kay Locke

Kay Locke teaches mindfulness and movement to patients on the mental health wards for Manchester NHS, she also teaches yoga, massage and stress reduction to carers, adults and children affected by disability for; charities such as Space4autism in Macclesfield and Stockport Local Authority.

Kay was inspired to work in this field by her daughters who are both on the spectrum. While studying for a postgraduate certificate in Aspergers Syndrome at Sheffield Hallam University Kay was diagnosed with ASC nine years ago.

Kay is currently studying on the Masters in Mindfulness based studies programme at Bangor University.

Olivia Astrid Pountney

Olivia has had 10 years experience working within the theatre and amateur/semi-professional dramatics. She has worked with many different originations and people from all ages and abilities. Olivia is also autistic and a very keen proponent of the autism rights movement and the greater neurodiversity moment.