Research
I'm an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Bristol and a named author on peer-reviewed studies published in Autism, Autism in Adulthood and PLOS ONE. My role is to make sure autistic people have a say in the research that's about us.
University of Bristol · Ongoing
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Randomised Controlled Trial Ongoing
SerTRaline for AnxieTy in adults with a diagnosis of Autism (STRATA)
A major trial testing whether sertraline is an effective and acceptable treatment for anxiety in autistic adults. As a member of the STRATA Autistic Advisory Group, I advise on whether study processes, outcome measures and materials sent to participants are accessible, relevant and make sense from an autistic perspective.
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Autistica DARE Initiative · 2022–2024
Between 2022 and 2024, I was an autistic co-author on four peer-reviewed studies produced through Autistica's Discover Autism Research and Employment (DARE) initiative, using data from the Diverse Minds Survey. I helped shape the survey topics, design questions, improve accessibility, interpret findings and develop recommendations.
The question running through all four papers is not just whether autistic people can get jobs, but whether employment systems are set up in ways that let neurodivergent people enter, stay in, progress through and feel safe at work. The papers argue that most of the barriers people face are not personal shortcomings. They are consequences of how recruitment, adjustment processes, workplace culture and disclosure work in practice.
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Autism in Adulthood 2023
Autistic Adults' Priorities for Future Autism Employment Research: Perspectives from the United Kingdom
We asked autistic adults what employment research should focus on next and what change it should lead to. The answers covered every stage of working life: getting into work, workplace culture, career progression, leaving jobs, masking, mental health, and making sure future research is done with a wider range of autistic people, not just about them.
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Autism 2023
Access to employment: A comparison of autistic, neurodivergent and neurotypical adults' experiences of hiring processes in the United Kingdom
We compared how autistic, other neurodivergent and non-neurodivergent adults experience hiring in the UK. The paper shows how interviews that reward confidence and eye contact over actual ability, vague job descriptions and rigid formats shut people out, and makes the case for assessments that test what the job needs, not how well you perform in an interview.
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PLOS ONE 2023
The workplace masking experiences of autistic, non-autistic neurodivergent and neurotypical adults in the UK
We looked at workplace masking across autistic, other neurodivergent and non-neurodivergent adults in the UK. Many people mask to protect themselves from stigma and being treated differently at work, but for neurodivergent employees the cost is high: exhaustion, worse mental health and fewer ways to get the support they need.
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PLOS ONE 2022
Autistic adults' views and experiences of requesting and receiving workplace adjustments in the UK
We looked at autistic adults' experiences of asking for and getting workplace adjustments in the UK. The law says employers should make "reasonable adjustments," but in practice autistic employees are often left to work out what they need, ask for it themselves, and keep pushing until it happens.
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Department for Education · UCL CRAE · Autistica · Ambitious About Autism
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British Educational Research Journal 2022
Autistic young people's experiences of transitioning to adulthood following the Children and Families Act 2014
A peer-reviewed study examining how 80 autistic young people aged 16–25 experienced the transition to adulthood under the Children and Families Act 2014, including their access to support, voice in decisions, and educational outcomes. As an autistic collaborator from Ambitious About Autism, I worked with the academic researchers to generate question and topic ideas, and reviewed drafts of the survey and interviews to ensure they were understandable and accessible. I am named in the acknowledgements and credited in the Materials section as a collaborator.
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Commissioned Research Report 2021
Finding and Sustaining Employment: Participant Summary Report
Research commissioned by the Department for Education and the Autism Education Trust, conducted by UCL's Centre for Research in Autism and Education in partnership with Autistica and Ambitious About Autism. As an autistic collaborator from Ambitious About Autism, I worked with the academic researchers to generate question and topic ideas, and reviewed drafts of the survey and interviews to ensure they were understandable and accessible. I am named in the acknowledgements and credited as a collaborator. The report examines the experiences of autistic young people transitioning into employment, and informed the development of the Transition to Employment Toolkit and the Employment Toolkit for Professionals.
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Autistica · Molehill Mountain
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Co-designed CBT App 2021
Molehill Mountain — anxiety self-management app for autistic people
Molehill Mountain is a CBT-based app developed with autistic people to help them understand and self-manage anxiety. I contributed as an autism research consultant, advising on whether the app's approach, content and design reflected how autistic people actually experience anxiety — and whether it would be genuinely useful to them.
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