Being "One Team" also means recognizing that the space we create for ourselves directly impacts the wellbeing of those around us. It is about fostering a culture of belonging and inclusion where we all look out for one another. This is a job that belongs to all of us.
Jake Stevenson, the paraplegic youth, has a unique connection with bees, particularly the queen bees, which he can hear emitting a specific tone known as G-sharp.
From the get-go, Ross says, The Pitt's writers "were very serious about not portraying a stereotypical situation" regarding autism. "That was in the original request that was posed to me," she says. Her advice eventually helped shape fan-favorite character Dr. Mel King (played by Taylor Dearden), a bright-eyed resident new to the ER in the show's first season.
In 2013, when Meredith O'Connor was 16, the music video for her debut single "Celebrity" went viral. Afterward, she channeled her own stardom into championing childhood mental health: As a hyperactive kid, O'Connor says she was often the subject of bullying, and when her music career gave her a platform, she was eager to use it to advocate on behalf of other victims. "I knew my fan base was younger, but I didn't know how many people would resonate with mental health challenges," she says. "I realized there were millions of gifted people that are being marginalized, and that's when I really wanted to start the mental health study."
Universal inclusion bases are spaces away from classrooms where children with additional needs can get support for some lessons. They are seen as a key part of government plans to overhaul special educational needs and disabilities (Send) support. Ministers have been frantically promoting a vision of a more inclusive education system, ahead of the publication of a landmark schools white paper, widely seen as the most high-stakes policy reform the government has attempted since the welfare rebellion last year.
Anyone who is under psychiatric care, or loves someone who is, may want to read the book The Devil's Castle: Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today, by Susanne Paola Antonetta. If you care about history, particularly the history of eugenics, you may be interested as well. The book may offer us more respect for the mind, for consciousness, and its diversity.
From April 10-26, the Big Umbrella Festival returns with nearly three weeks of free and pay-what-you-can performances, workshops and installations, all tailored for neurodivergent audiences. Big Umbrella, which launched in 2018, was the first large-scale performing arts festival of its kind and it's only grown more ambitious since. This year's edition spans dance, theater, comedy, music, visual art and outdoor installations, welcoming kids, adults, families and first-time arts-goers into spaces designed to be flexible, relaxed and judgment-free.
At the start of this year, I went back to contracting, and then I learned I had prostate cancer. It was stage one, and I was on active monitoring for six months. I did some more contracting up until July, when I was told I needed to have treatment. So, I had treatment, and all the signs were good. In August, I thought, 'OK, I can start looking to go back to work.'
"I feel like there's a narrative sometimes that our little actions don't matter," Neurodiversity Alliance CEO David Flink said. "That's just not true. And this proves it. Lots of little actions that happen every day in our work, collectively over time, reached the ears of folks like Lauren and Jeff."
