Ms Amy O'Keefe:

Around the awareness part, as Dr. Kelly said, it was fabulous that there were so many people there to hear a keynote that was kind of describing how our science did things wrong and setting out what needs to be changed. In one way it was almost preaching to the choir because looking at all the people there, they were willing to be there and to listen to me as an autistic person tell them what they did wrong, so clearly they were open to learning. On the other hand, I had some colleagues come up to me and thank me because not they had the language they needed to go and advocate for neuroaffirmity. There can be a fear, particularly with neurotypical practitioners. They are not sure how to word things or what the right way to approach something is. I had colleagues and peers come up to me and say that my keynote was great and it contained all the stuff they wanted to learn, and they now had the language to go and disseminate it further. Our message of neuroaffirmity is going further. I would hope to be heavily involved in developing CPD modules as well. I am very ambitious. One day I will have modules on neuroaffirmity in NUIG and Trinity .