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WINNERS of London Youth Award

admin — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 10:46:13 +0000

We are delighted to announce that Autus are WINNERS of London Youth Award in the Employability Award category.

Jo Ivers our Employment Engagement Manager was accompanied by Adam and Luke who are service users to receive the award.

Autus wins London Youth Employability Award

Autus, a charity which provides training and support to help people with autism find and keep jobs, has won the London Youth Award for Employability for its MentorMe3D e-mentoring programme. The Employability Award is for organisations, programmes or projects that have gone above and beyond in their dedication to help young people overcome barriers to enter and sustain work.

The MentorMe3D programme matched 35 autistic people (all long-term unemployed) interested in working in IT with technology professionals who were trained to understand autism. Mentors used their industry knowledge to advise mentees about working in IT and help with job applications. As a result of the programme, 8 people are now in paid work, with others achieving work-related outcomes such as work experience and volunteering.

“This is a magnificent achievement by our team, mentors and learners”, said Eleanor Fisk, Chair of the Autus Board of Trustees. “It’s really rewarding to watch participants’ confidence improve as they build new skills. In the 5 years since Autus began, we’ve helped over 250 people build confidence, break out of isolation, gain qualifications and/or find sustainable work they enjoy. We hope this award will bring us more opportunities to reach the 77% of unemployed autistic adults who want to work^[1] and help close the autism unemployment gap.”

^{[1] Source: National Autistic Society, http://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/media-centre/news/2017-11-30-employment-road-map.aspx}

Round 2 Winners of the Natwest Skills and Opportunities Fund

admin — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 15:48:29 +0000

Thanks to the NatWest Skills and Opportunities funding, we can work with 24 people in small groups to provide personalised, specialist training and support in enterprise skills development. 'Prism' includes teaching and accreditation of enterprise skills; confidence-building sessions; a mentor scheme and an enterprise challenge sponsored by employers. Thanks for voting!

http://skillsandopportunitiesfund.natwest.com/winners/case-study/london/2017-round-2/autus/

Help People with Autism Get into Tech

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 16:42:55 +0000

Autus, a charity specialising in teaching employability and life skills to people with autism, is seeking IT professionals to take part in its MentorMe3D scheme. The scheme matches people with autism interested in working in IT with a mentor who can advise them on how to get into the sector.

"I was a bit apprehensive about mentoring an autistic person at first but both of us have benefited from the experience. I have learnt that many skills I take for granted can really make a difference to another person. [His] aptitude for coding is exceptional and I spend a few hours each month listening, guiding and supporting him. It's been very rewarding to see his confidence grow and him securing paid work opportunities in a very short space of time."

Andrew, Business Consultant and Autus Mentor

Everyone in the tech field agrees that the UK is facing a shortage of digital skills which needs to be addressed. Yet the industry is largely missing out on the talents of people with autism who may be uniquely qualified for the jobs of the future. Tech giants such as Microsoft and SAP are seeking to hire more staff with autism due to their increased perceptual capacity and pattern recognition. Many of our mentees have IT-related qualifications or have taught themselves to code. However, the skills needed to get a job tend to differ from the skills needed to do the job. That's where mentoring can really make a difference.

“It's great to have her guiding me and giving me something to strive for”

James, one of our mentees, talking about his mentor

We are looking for mentors who are willing to spare approximately 4 hours per month to help someone with autism build capabilities in areas such as:

Finding relevant job opportunities
Tailoring CVs to IT roles
Applying and interviewing for tech jobs
Negotiating pay

Full training is provided in autism awareness, safeguarding and the specifics of the role.

“Being a mentor is one of the most rewarding experiences. I enjoy working with [him], seeing him grow in confidence and achieve things he never thought he could do”

Donna, CEO and Autus Mentor

There are many more gifted young autistic people who just need a bit of guidance to help them show potential employers what they can do. If you are interested in helping someone with autism achieve their full potential, please sign up at https://www.autus.org.uk/mentor. The abilities you take for granted can make an extraordinary difference.

Minister for London Sees Benefits of Autism Tech

admin — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 19:03:21 +0000

The Minister for London, Gavin Barwell MP, saw for himself how technology can help people with autism gain skills for work and independent living on a visit to the Croydon hub of autism charity Autus. As well as logging into Autus' 3DNovations learning environment with his very own avatar and trying his hand at a 'snakes and ladders'-style serious game used to teach employability skills, Mr Barwell spoke with some of Autus' learners, who explained how Autus had helped them learn IT skills, gain qualifications and find paid work.

Donna Thompson, CEO of Autus, said: “We are delighted to have our service users introduce Gavin Barwell MP to the engaging virtual environments that are helping them grow their confidence and motivation while learning essential skills for work. Thanks to funding from LCF/Sport Relief, we are bringing young autistic people from Croydon and surrounding areas together to develop employability skills using our online 3D platform. We hope to be able to replicate this successful project elsewhere so more young people can benefit.”

Autus exists to help people with autism and complex needs become more independent and economically active through training and peer support. The 3DNovations virtual training platform co-created by Autus and the social enterprise Hao2 to provide this support was recently shortlisted for the European Foundations Awards for Responsible Research and Innovation (EFARRI). The European Foundations commended 3DNovations as a model of RRI because:

Beneficiaries of 3DNovations are involved at every stage. The platform is designed by people with autism for people with autism, to be accessible in any location and support a variety of communication preferences and learning speeds. Participants can learn to adapt to any situation they may need or want to encounter by replicating it in this controlled environment, picking up useful IT skills along the way.
The outcomes serve broader societal goals. By generating sustainable employment-related outcomes far surpassing the Work Programme for people with autism, 3DNovations is helping to close the autism employment gap, improving people with autism's social inclusion, mental health and well-being[1] and saving the taxpayer money. Society also benefits from a more diverse workforce: as a recent Harvard Business Review article[2] stated, more diverse teams at work perform better.

For more information about how Autus helps young people with autism, please contact Donna Thompson at donna@autus.org.uk or Nicola Herbertson on 020 8123 4708

[1] Dockery, L. (2016). The effects of employment on the mental health and executive functions of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Goldsmiths, University of London, London

[2] https://hbr.org/2016/09/diverse-teams-feel-less-comfortable-and-thats-why-they-perform-better

World Autism Day 2016

admin — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 16:51:23 +0000

"On this World Autism Awareness Day, I call for advancing the rights of individuals with autism and ensuring their full participation and inclusion as valued members of our diverse human family who can contribute to a future of dignity and opportunity for all." - Ban Ki-moon

Autus is proud to support World Autism Day 2016

Study in Empowering People with Disabilities

admin — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 10:32:28 +0000

Civil Society Case: Hao2.eu 3Dnovations & Autus

How do you influence decisions if they are made according to rules that are clear to everyone except you? How do you make your voice heard if you have grown up with an unpredictable barrage of disapproval, exclusion and ridicule whenever you try to express yourself? Especially if you've therefore withdrawn from the world, maybe to the point of not speaking at all?

This problem is faced by many people with autism. It is often compounded by economic disenfranchisement: according to a study by the National Autistic Society, just 15% of autistic adults had a full-time job and a third had no job or benefits[1]. The two problems can become a vicious circle, with lack of confidence making it harder to find work, and unemployment further undermining confidence. The social enterprise Hao2.eu 3DNovations, along with its charitable arm Autus, is breaking this cycle by teaching people with autism employability skills, improving their confidence and their chances of finding a job.

Our User-Led Approach

Hao2's founder, Nicola Herbertson, had the idea for an innovative new way of teaching life skills to people with autism when she noticed how members of her family with autism became much more sociable in online environments such as the virtual world game Minecraft. The choice to socialise online is a decision many people with autism make. A study by the University of Cambridge into making higher education more autism-friendly noted the need to offer more options to interact online because many people with autism are more comfortable with such interaction[2]. Likewise, research at Carleton University, Ottawa noted that autistic people showed a strong preference for online interaction and hypothesised that this might be due to the familiar structures of online communication, the ability to choose topics of conversation and/or the option of responding in one's own time[3].

Hao2 and Autus take on board the recommendation in the Cambridge study that online interaction should be a starting point. Our courses are designed to use the safe virtual environment to help people with autism reach beyond their comfort zone. For instance, participants may start off communicating by text in the virtual world, but move on to voice as they gain confidence. Likewise, if a participant finds a particular environment difficult or overwhelming (e.g. public transport was a recurrent theme in the last set of local authority Autism Self-Assessment returns[4]), a simulation can be built in order to practise until it becomes familiar. This online delivery method also allows people with autism to take courses from a venue of their choice.

As well as delivering our courses in a way that echoes the social environments people with autism often choose, we also give individual learners considerable decision-making power over their course content. Participants evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses and create personal projects to address the weaknesses and build on the strengths. As well as each user having a virtual 'island' he/she can call home and customise to suit his/her special interests, any user can contribute his/her personal touch to the space by creating things that enhance the environment. Examples include the taster islands we use to introduce people to how the virtual world works, which still bear the names of participants who helped build them. Our learners engage in peer mentoring and, on completion of courses, can gain work experience training others to use the virtual world and/or building customised 3D environments for local authorities and other organisations (such as JobcentrePlus Swindon, now the proud owner of an exact digital replica of its premises for a Journey to Employment project) who have ordered our services. They say that if you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism, but our virtual environment can adapt infinitely to suit individual differences because the individual users build it.

This emphasis on handing decision-making power to people with autism carries through to the structure of both organisations. 80% of Hao2/Autus' staff have autism and they hold posts at all hierarchical levels. Hao2’s courses have been designed with considerable input from people with autism, in accordance with the EU’s principles of Responsible Research and Innovation, which highlight the importance of engaging and including everyone in the process of developing solutions to societal issues[5]. This has led to highly flexible modular courses, to facilitate scheduling around whatever other support or special interest activities might be going on in participants' lives. In particular, because Autus is a disabled people's user-led organisation (DPULO), staff with autism have had significant input into its website design, ensuring high contrast and maximum use of videos, and the application route for individuals joining courses, allowing applications to be completed by the user or a nominated individual and making taster sessions available before committing to a course.

Our Results

This user-led approach, autism-friendly by design because people with autism have so much of a say in every aspect of it, is making impressive progress in helping people with autism become economically active and therefore more empowered in the wider world. The most obvious answer to the question “How do you know it's working?” is: “Because our alumni are!” Hao2's most recently completed project with Winchester Jobcentreplus so far has 40% work-related outcomes for people receiving Employment Support Allowance, compared to 10.2% national average for the Work Programme. The first cohort of learners in our pilot scheme for the Department for Work and Pensions' (DWP) Journey to Employment at Swindon Jobcentreplus have already reached 20% employment outcomes in week 11 of a 12 week course.

Furthermore, our courses help participants achieve lasting success as these results tend to climb with time, indicating that while some participants take longer than others to find work, once they find it, they tend to keep it. For instance, 90% of the learners from a 2011 3DNovations project in Croydon are now in paid employment and two of them have started their own businesses. Alumni from past projects now work in roles as diverse as software tester for a SaaS company, local council finance officer, technical support for a college and radio presenter.

One reason for our high rate of work-related outcomes is that our courses help learners acquire valuable life skills. Social enterprises Balance CIC and Pure Innovations in Kingston and Stockport created created an innovative star-shaped scale in the virtual world to help participants track their progress and reported significant improvement in 8 out of the 10 measures, including confidence in meeting others, openness to new ideas and IT skills. Winchester Jobcentreplus also scored participant progression, achievement and confidence as high or very high in their evaluation of the course. These transferable skills are evidently a great help in making one's voice heard in many areas of life.

Future Opportunities

1) Career progression

A possible extension of Hao2's scope could come in the shape of a course assisting people with autism in advancing in their careers. After all, many people with autism are highly intelligent and should be capable of moving up to positions with great responsibilities. Benedetto De Martino at the California Institute of Technology has highlighted the superior ability of people with autism to make rational decisions, while Dr Laurent Mottron at the University of Montreal employs several researchers with autism because some people on the spectrum have extremely high intelligence and exceptional memory[6]. Legendary entrepreneur Peter Thiel believes Asperger syndrome is an advantage for business leadership because it leads one to think unconventionally and thus innovate[7], while Danish recruitment agency Specialisterne recruits people on the autistic spectrum for many world-renowned technology firms due to their increased perceptual capacity and pattern recognition[8].

However, talent alone is often not enough to turn a job into a career. It is well known that most jobs are not advertised: the percentage varies, but Sydney's JMC Academy recently estimated the number of jobs not advertised as 80%[9]. The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission has already warned that those with more access to career guidance and the hidden jobs market through family connections tend to do better than less privileged people with greater ability[10]. This problem is likely disproportionately to affect people with autism, who often cannot pick up the unwritten rules as they go along and may also have parents on the spectrum, who grew up in the years before autism-specific employment support and may be disadvantaged as a result.

Moreover, if the company that hired individuals with autism for their unconventional thinking and attention to detail decides to change its strategy, the company culture can soon become much less autism-friendly. Many modern business strategies advocate standardising in favour of “cultural fit” criteria, ostensibly in the name of innovation. In practice, however, this often means that the proponents of “cultural fit” hire and promote only those like themselves, blocking entry to anyone different and isolating those of a different mindset who are already there. This leads to organisational decision-making processes and policies that are less tolerant of other perspectives, including autism, and risk embedding inequality. In the long run, the reduced diversity (including neurodiversity) caused by this practice of valuing similarity and closeness to a clique above all else can also harm the business, because as Temple Grandin pointed out: “What would happen if the autism gene was eliminated from the gene pool? You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and socializing and not getting anything done.”[11] Even when a company wants to promote someone with autism, many management books and training programmes give very general guidelines for dealing with people and gloss over specifics that may not be obvious to somebody with autism.

Hao2 and Autus have begun working to solve this problem by partnering with Resound Training, a professional development training company, to devise a way of delivering leadership and management training via the virtual world. The first cohort of learners has begun testing out this new method of delivering this course in preparation for a qualification from the Institute of Leadership and Management. It is hoped that this will provide people with high-functioning autism with a way of reaching their full potential.

2) Virtual world to promote citizenship

As discussed above, Hao2 and Autus are already using the virtual world to help people with autism rehearse dealing with environments they find difficult or overwhelming, to help them cope better in real life and achieve their desired outcomes. We have been involved in a project to create a virtual clinic to help people with disabilities take control of their health and we are currently devising a way to present the stages of using a job centre as a series of interactive dialogues in a virtual world replica of the job centre participants will use in real life.

While presenting our services to local councils, we have found that some of them are keen to explore the possibilities of presenting local authority services via the virtual world. For example, Camden Council, which has had to cut back on space and staff for interaction with residents visiting council offices, has raised the possibility of using a virtual council office, accessible from anywhere, to make the services it offers more visible to residents. This would put people with autism and neurotypicals (those who do not have autism, a learning disability or a mental health condition) on an equal footing from the start.

A senior civil servant at the DWP's Office for Disability Issues has also expressed an interest in using the virtual world to help people with autism make one of the most important decisions a citizen can make: namely, how to vote. As well as creating a simulation of the polling station so people with autism know what to expect when they go to vote, there are suggestions that the various candidates could present themselves and what they stand for in the virtual world, allowing people with autism to hear all sides of the debate and decide away from the often noisy and unpredictable atmosphere of political hustings. Some serving Members of Parliament have already shown interest in creating virtual world avatars of themselves, so the age of the virtual world citizen may not be far off.

3) Sharing best practice globally

The European Union is beginning to examine provision in member states for people with autism, which should hopefully lead to improvements in some countries as very few countries currently have comprehensive autism strategies and support can be patchy even in those that do[12]. To that end, it is helpful that the European Parliament's Written Declaration on Autism[13] recognises that children with autism grow up to become adults with autism and will need support in their adult lives. However, the declaration paints too negative a picture of autism, dwelling on the difficulties people with autism face, rather than their talents, and setting vague goals that risk allowing countries where autism provision is currently inadequate to rest on their laurels after small successes, when in fact people with autism are capable of so much more[14].

In the absence of an ambitious autism strategy for Europe as a whole, Hao2 and Autus are engaging in transnational EU programmes such as RRI-Tools[15] and building local partnerships in improve the life chances of people with autism locally in various EU member states. In the Republic of Ireland, we are partnering with University College Dublin's SMARTlab to raise awareness of the potential for technology like our virtual world to improve outcomes and opportunities for people with autism. In Italy, we have been

linking to the charity AIPA via the virtual world and encouraging them in their research into the employment needs of local people with autism, with a view to obtaining funding so we can pilot our technology there. In Spain, we are working with arts organisation HeARTs, which is seeking funding to do a 3D art therapy project for people with autism and mental health conditions, enabling best practice to be shared across the UK, Spain and China.

China is another part of the world that is beginning to improve its provision for people with autism. Hao2 staff have visited China on two UKTI trade delegations to research autism support and found that although early years provision is quite extensive, there is much room for improvement in services to young people and adults with autism, as well as an opportunity to make provision more effective by using more modern technology. We are currently working in partnership with the charity Nestworks to apply for funding for a pilot project teaching employability and life skills to people with autism in China.

All these partner organisations have space on the open source AIM grid server, which we donated to enable autism organisations around the world to share best practice for the use of virtual world technology to help people with autism. We have already carried out one project to raise awareness of how best to use virtual world technology to benefit people on the spectrum across the UK, the EU, the Commonwealth and China. As autism awareness around the world improves, we are eager to bring the benefits of our approach to as many countries as possible.

Conclusion

Hao2 and Autus' mission is to help people on the autistic spectrum acquire the skills and confidence to participate fully in many areas of life, most notably the workplace with all the economic empowerment that brings. Our employability and life skills courses are delivered in a virtual environment largely designed by people with autism for people with autism, and in a manner that allows individual users extensive powers of decision over where, when and how they learn. Our user-led courses are leading to marked improvement in participants' ability to find and keep jobs, as well as the life skills needed to participate fully in decision making and in wider society. We look forward to using our virtual world to enable career progression, make interaction with more services and the democratic process more autism-friendly and help people with autism around the world choose a better future.

www.hao2.eu

www.3dnovations.co.uk

www.autus.org.uk

Working together to make a world of difference

© Hao2.eu 2015 Beth Charlesworth (Author) Nicola Herbertson (Contributor)

[1] http://www.autism.org.uk/sitecore/content/Microsites/DontWriteMeOff/Home/About-the-campaign.aspx

[2] Hastwell, J., Harding, J., Martin, N., Baron-Cohen, S., 'Asperger Syndrome Student Project 2009-12: Final Project Report, June 2013', http://www.disability.admin.cam.ac.uk/files/asprojectreport2013.pdf

[3] Johnson, J., 'Exploring the Social Experiences of Adults on the Autistic Spectrum: Views on Friendships, Dating and Partnerships', https://curve.carleton.ca/system/files/theses/31686.pdf

[4] https://www.improvinghealthandlives.org.uk/projects/autism2013

[5] http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/responsible-research-and-innovation-leaflet_en.pdf

[6] https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829194.300-rise-of-the-autistic-workforce/#.VXshTvlVikp

[7] http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-10-07/peter-thiel-criticizes-harvard-business-school-praises-aspergers

[8] http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-autistic-people-good-business.html

[9] http://www.jmcacademy.edu.au/news/how-to-get-a-job-in-the-creative-industry

[10] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11763836/Wealthy-parents-create-glass-floor-to-ensure-children-succeed-regardless-of-talent.html

[11] Grandin, T., 'The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger's', Future Horizons, 2008

[12] 'Protecting the Rights of People with Autism in the Fields of Education and Employment', eds. Della Fina, V., and Cera, R., http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/212/bok%253A978-3-319-13791-9.pdf?originUrl=http%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Fbook%2F10.1007%2F978-3-319-13791-9&token2=exp=1434034045~acl=%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2F212%2Fbok%25253A978-3-319-13791-9.pdf%3ForiginUrl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Flink.springer.com%252Fbook%252F10.1007%252F978-3-319-13791-9*~hmac=f669c662e7a6b151b1943b3a9d74e8cc99bb4a82152e0eab1254365fb7c0e8e5

[13] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fNONSGML%2bWDECL%2bP8-DCL-2015-0018%2b0%2bDOC%2bPDF%2bV0%2f%2fEN

[14] For a more in-depth discussion of how the European Parliament Written Declaration on Autism paints too negative a picture of what is possible for people with autism, please see the Autus blog post 'Europe and Autism: United in Neurodiversity?', https://www.autus.org.uk/node/21

[15] http://www.rri-tools.eu/

3D Launch Point

admin — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 10:37:29 +0000

Arriving at the new 3D Launch Point, I am immediately greeted by the first thing anyone new to virtual worlds needs to know: how to make my avatar move about, and thus explore this new environment.

Of course, as a volunteer mentor I already have some experience with most of the things the new training environment will be aiming to teach me, and have even customised my viewer in ways the guidance likely will not touch on. Nonetheless, I have resolved to explore with the mind-set of a new user. Who knows? Perhaps I will even learn something I didn’t know before; or at least get the chance to brush up and get a better perspective for the people I might be helping in the future.

The ‘landing pad’ has a crisp, slightly futuristic feel. Coloured, shaded, but texture-less structures and frame the more organic-looking elements, and together with faintly illuminated lines naturally guide the eye where it needs to go, first from the boards with their instructions and then on down the path ahead. This use of un-textured elements and strong colours compliments well the capabilities of the platform, as well as keeping visual distraction under control without seeming sterile or unfriendly.

As I take my first steps into the ‘Walking Zone’, a helpful voice from one of the local objects sends me a message, requesting that I make sure to read the boards as I explore the maze, and challenging me to find a series of hidden boxes to unlock a code.

My first encounter in the maze is a cube which, upon clicking, tenders up a video link that while sadly incompatible with the viewer’s internal browser, is nonetheless easily viewed my browser alongside. A short instructional video on health and safety at the computer later, I am once more on my way – and in possession of the first letter of my passcode for later. Four more discovered cubes and a series of code locks later, and I am met with a congratulation sign from the ‘Running Zone’ to confirm my knowledge of the basics of movement within the virtual world.

Unlike the Walking Zone with its glowing lines and foliage walls, the Running Zone presents me with a wide open sports field, and the welcoming primitive suggests that I try racing my mentor once I’m comfortable with the new way of moving. A quick experimental lap, and I am on my way past the Congratulations Signboard and into the ‘Build Zone’.

The Build Zone presents another change of environment. The glowing lines have returned, but now they are orange, and within the wooden-floored confines of this new structure are far more ‘cosy future’ than the almost Star Trek-like sensation of the landing pad. Each signboard presents an explanation, or instructions of various elements of the simulation’s building functionality, starting from how to call on the build menu and place a simple primitive in the world, then moving on to the various ways in which that primitive can be deformed and coloured, and finishing with visual effects such as applying transparency or luminance.

The next section of the build zone presents me with instructions on how to put together something more complex: a table, constructed from five variously stretched cubes, textured in wood, and then linked to form a single object within the simulation. This leads into the final section, a suggestion that I try using the principles I have learned to assemble a chair to go with my table.

With my chair assembled and sadly no mentor of my own to brandish it at for praise, next up is the ‘Photography Zone’, which takes the form of a nature trail; a board-walk through pine woodland with a variety of animals to capture in images. Here I am presented with instructions on how to take pictures in-world; how to call the viewer’s Snapshot function and with it save pictures of what I am seeing either to my computer or to my avatar’s inventory within the simulation.

Throughout the zone I am further instructed in how to manipulate (my perception of) the very elements to my will through the viewer’s Sun Position and Environment Settings controls, and thus create both a time of day and an atmosphere for my photography. A signboard at the end of the zone offers me the opportunity to pose alongside my masterpiece beside the zone’s final display board.

Through a waterfall, and my next stop is the Teleport Zone, a return to the science fiction sensation of before in neon purples and cylinders whose animating textures lend a nice touch to the area’s teleportation pods. With these objects, I am instructed in the concept of teleporting rapidly around a region rather than merely walking about. A puzzle involving working out the correct pods to use, in what order, makes certain that I am thoroughly acquainted with the idea before finally depositing me at the beginning of the next zone: the Flying Zone.

Here I am presented with the various methods by which I can use the simulation’s final and perhaps most liberating form of locomotion: flight. Be it through the on-screen controls called via the viewer’s various buttons or the keyboard, I am instructed first in how to hover, and then how to move around in all three possible dimensions. Finally, an obstacle course comprised first of cubes, and then a series of tubes, ensures my understanding of the basics of flight before sending me on my way into the 3D Launch Point’s final zone – the Chat Zone!

Here, the finer points of communications within the simulation are explained, and while a visiting learner will by this point almost certainly have experienced at least one of the ways in which users can communicate with one another, no potential chat medium is left out.

Beginning with ‘Instant Message’ chat, both to people around you within the world and in a private form to an individual user, I once more find myself saddened to be without a mentor of my own as the zone suggests striking up a conversation with whoever is supervising me about my interests. Having dismissed the idea of attempting to bore one of the walls to death instead, I continue to read through the signboards, receiving instruction in direct text communication with friends and then in the use of the simulations voice chat function. The final pair of signboards’ instructions discuss the creation of notecards, and their use as trade-able objects after the fashion of writing another user a letter.

This is not the end of the chat zone, however. Signboards around the opposite side of the zone provide information about Autus and Hao2, including interesting facts about its various members of staff. I was unaware that one of the team was a member of a popular band in the 80’s, or that another was a pilot! The zone also presented me with the opportunity to have a go at dancing, before finally offering a podium on which a mentor can take a snapshot of a successful learner.

With only a pelican and a tortoise for company however, I was sadly forced to play my own, lonely photographer to create this image, commemorating my triumph over the guidance and challenges of the new 3D Launch Point.

A Virtual World Café - Connecting and Supporting People with Autism

admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 15:10:02 +0000

Balance, Hao2 and Pure Innovations have been working together in a pilot supporting people with autism through the virtual world using a Connect Up virtual café designed by a young man with autism.

Initial findings are that the project is achieving positive outcomes for people with autism with the majority of the participants reporting improvement in:

Confidence in meeting others
IT skills
Openness to new ideas
Patience with others
General social skills

Feedback from the participants was positive with one saying “I really enjoyed using the avatar to move around, and communicate in the virtual café and world. I think there is loads of scope for this type of project to help people on the spectrum”.

Balance now have “an enhanced and more flexible offer to adults with autism referred to Balance” and anticipate potential future savings as “supporting a group of users in the virtual world is more cost effective than 1:1 support in the real world”.

Importantly, for a participant group that generally finds social interaction and collaborative work a challenge, Balance reports that “the project has connected those that took part” and they “really enjoyed the group sessions where there was a facilitated task and objective”.

Take a look at this wonderful information video which has been produced by Balance to explain the Connect Up project.

Europe and Autism: United in Neurodiversity?

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 09:10:55 +0000

The aim of improving autism support in Europe is laudable. However, is it informed by too negative a vision of the future for people on the spectrum?

While the 'postcode lottery' for some UK government services is a source of frustration to many, we should spare a thought for the differences in treatment for people with autism across the EU. For the millions of people on the autistic spectrum in Europe (estimates for the number of those affected range from 1.51 million to 3.17 million), life chances vary wildly depending on one's country of residence.

According to Autism Europe's recent research, only 5 EU countries (Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Hungary and most UK constituent nations) have comprehensive autism plans in place. In some countries, autism policies are devised in services where people with autism cross paths with the state. These plans may differ from one region to another, as with the German education policies which are devolved to the Länder: the option of mainstream versus special schooling is therefore frequently determined by location rather than need. Elsewhere, the very concept of autism awareness is a relatively new one. The 2010 EAA2020 conference reported that families in many eastern European countries could not access autism provision due to stigma and in 2012, autism organisations were still warning of European countries without any autism support.

Moreover, having an autism plan does not in itself guarantee optimal outcomes. Autism Europe points out that France was one of the first countries to devise an autism strategy, but sadly this has not stopped some questionable practices. The French government has been condemned by the European Committee of Social Rights for providing inadequate education to children with autism, and until the start of this year, autism was routinely treated by the unproven and inhumane method of wrapping people in cold wet sheets.

In the light of this disparity in treatment for individuals with autism across Europe, it is hardly surprising that the European Parliament is seeking to adopt a Europe-wide strategy on autism. After all, there are many parts of Europe where improvement is certainly needed. The draft written declaration on autism has a welcome emphasis on sharing best practice and on the importance of evidence-based interventions. The recognition that children with autism grow up to become adults with autism and will need help with life's challenges as adults is also vital. However, one cannot help but wonder whether the declaration's negative portrayal of the autism spectrum is going to deliver the best possible autism strategy.

The Dangers of Negativity

To begin with, the terminology used to describe autism is overwhelmingly unfavourable. According to the declaration, autism is a 'complex brain disorder' characterised by 'mild to severe impairments' in a range of areas, and for which there is 'currently no cure', the implication being that the authors hope for one soon. Compare that with leading autism expert Dr Simon Baron Cohen's hypothesis that the autistic spectrum should be considered a condition, not a disorder, because people on the spectrum's way of perceiving the world is not disordered, just different, and that certain autistic traits may be advantageous for scientific aptitude.

Secondly, the declaration is too vague about the improvements member states can and should achieve in the lives of people with autism. Given the extreme variations as outlined above between EU countries' existing action on autism, 'significantly improving the level of independence of people with autism', though a worthwhile aim, is likely to be interpreted very differently from one country to another. For instance, a country where most people on the spectrum had not even been taught basic self-care would have significantly improved their independence if they learnt to care for themselves. Nonetheless, it would surely not be acceptable to let that country's leaders rest on their laurels after such a comparatively small step forward, when other EU countries are integrating many people on the spectrum into mainstream education and eventually the job market.

Opportunities for Positive Change

The declaration would therefore benefit from a more balanced description of autism and a clearer indication of what is possible for people on the spectrum with the right support. After all, much of the news about autism of late has been highly positive. Microsoft is hiring more people with autism and SAP has turned to the Danish recruitment agency Specialisterne to recruit more employees with autism due to their increased perceptual capacity and pattern recognition. Benedetto De Martino at the California Institute of Technology has highlighted the superior ability of people with autism to make rational decisions. Dr Laurent Mottron at the University of Montreal employs several researchers with autism because some people on the spectrum have extremely high intelligence and exceptional memory. Legendary entrepreneur Peter Thiel believes Asperger syndrome is an advantage for business leadership as it leads one to think unconventionally and thus innovate. Not all people on the spectrum will be able to reach these dazzling achievements, but it is only right that governments should be encouraged to help those who can to achieve their full potential.

Countries where there is presently little support for people with autism may object that it would be impossible for them to go straight from the status quo to a situation where many people with autism are living independent, economically active lives. It may indeed take some countries longer to reach the goal, but it is still important to have such an outcome as a target. The measures member states take to speed up diagnosis and improve education for children with autism are more likely to result in independence and economic participation when those children grow up if those in power understand that such an objective is possible and eventually to be expected.

The benefits for member states of supporting people on the autistic spectrum into employment are another powerful reason why greater strides should be made in autism support. A study by Prof. Martin Knapp and Krister Jarbrink suggested that the average lifetime cost to the state of supporting a person with autism is £2,940,538 for a person with autism and learning difficulties, £784,785 for a person with high-functioning autism and £525,070 for someone with Asperger syndrome. Scotland's autism strategy posits an 'invest to save' model whereby if 4% of people with Asperger syndrome could be given support into employment, they would cease to need support and would instead be contributing to the economy. However, in countries where the vast majority of people on the autistic spectrum are treated as though they have learning difficulties, even if a large proportion do not, the potential savings from developing the talents of people with autism could be far greater. In difficult economic times, it would be foolish to let the abilities of those who may be uniquely qualified for the tech jobs of the future go to waste.

Furthermore, the opportunity for people with autism to participate fully in society is not only right, it is a right. The 2008 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to the global implementation of which the EU is officially committed, cites among its general principles full and effective participation and inclusion in society, equality of opportunity and respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity. On World Autism Awareness Day this year, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon made clear that “Recognizing the talents of persons on the autism spectrum, rather than focusing on their weaknesses, is essential to creating a society that is truly inclusive".

Here in the UK, although there is always room for improvement, we are fortunate to have a highly developed autism strategy. Hao2.eu is proud to help many talented people with autism acquire the skills they need to participate in the workforce. We applaud efforts to increase opportunities for people on the autistic spectrum across Europe. With that in mind, we believe that a more balanced approach, emphasising the abilities of people with autism as well as helping them deal with the issues it brings, would be more likely to achieve positive results. After all, the first step to achieving anything is believing you can.

Beth Charlesworth
Head of Digital Marketing and Social Media
Hao2.eu

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World Autism Awareness Day

admin — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 09:00:00 +0000

We are proud to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day on 2nd April 2015