Dr. Teresa Mulhern:

I am autistic, so when I hear somebody say he or she wants to listen to autistic people and the disabled community, that is key and something we have really struggled with as a society. I grew up in the 1990s, when my rights were not enshrined in law. I had to muddle through a system that did not protect me at the time. As a behaviour analyst and an autistic behaviour analyst, it is important to me and my fellow people here that the human rights of autistic people and anybody we work with are completely enshrined in our practice. Granted, it can sometimes feel awkward to hear those attacks towards applied behaviour analysis, but as we have said, those are justified. We are not going to sit here and say nothing wrong has ever happened in the science, because it has. It is important we acknowledge that, because if we keep pretending these things did not happen, then we will continue to make the same mistakes. That is what human beings will do.

We are proposing a coalition, almost, between the neurodivergent autistic community and behaviour analysts. Behaviour analysts do not want to do anything to the autistic community, rather we want to work with them to help them gain access, as we said, to the environments they want to engage in and the skills-based learning they want. That is part of what we are suggesting Irish behaviour analysis can do because we have that opportunity. We have vocally distanced ourselves from the Association for Behavior Analysis International, ABAI. Much of the autistic community has come out against the ABAI, including, for example, the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center. We are making it clear through many policies and the recent Division of Behaviour Analysis conference we had in Athlone, where the entire theme was around neuroaffirmative care. The majority of symposiums and keynotes were given by autistic practitioners. Thus, we are seeing a shift. It is not going to happen straight away, but we are proposing regulations are going to be a key part of doing that, in line with hearing voices from the autistic community.