Mr. Adam Harris:

I certainly agree with that. While visiting a few teacher training colleges to give talks over the past while, I have had the pleasure of meeting student teachers who are on the autism spectrum. I think that will be so important in, ultimately, shifting the profession and moving it away from one type of person teaching other types of people and making the profession more inclusive overall. The point made by the Acting Chairman is really important because we talk about universal design and universal design for learning. The problem is when many of these frameworks were developed, autism was still addressed as a medical issue and was not seen as part of that. As I briefed the committee earlier, I even see that with regard to how school buildings are being built. They are incredibly accessible with wide corridors but are less accessible than they ever were for autistic students for a range of reasons. There is a need to embed autistic people into the universal design process recognising that it is not about charity or special education but about diversity and embedding that culture.