Autism Expert by Experience Group Launch
Autism ‘Expert by Experience’ Group launched
On Friday 14 February, we launched our Autism ‘Expert by Experience’ Group in Riddell Hall as part of our Autism@Queen’s initiative.
The ‘Expert by Experience’ Group comprises autistic adults who have participated in our research and are willing to provide us with input on how to improve our research practice, and with ideas for further research.
The two key aims of Autism@Queen’s and of our group are:
- To inform our participants and the local autistic community about ongoing research projects and outcomes
- To involve autistic people in setting research priorities and in ensuring that our studies are appropriately designed
In this meeting, we presented our recent findings on posture and balance control in autism in order to inform participants about the outcomes of the research to which they participated. We also had an invited presentation from Dr Aideen McParland on eye movements in children with autism.
More importantly, we asked the group’s views on our materials and research practices, on how to improve the way we recruit participants, and on how best to communicate our research findings to the wider autistic community.
Rebekah Knox said about the event:
“It was really useful for us to have an opportunity to engage with autistic people. We received extremely helpful feedback on our research ideas and practices. We hope to continue to increase our research impact through working closely with the group in future”
The Group will next meet in September 2020 (date TBC). If you’d like to join the group or require further information please contact Dr Mihalis Doumas and Rebekah Knox