AuDHD: Autism & ADHD: A Unique Lens
Date: February 27th, 2025
Time: 2PM – 3:30PM
Location(s): Hybrid event - An Mheiteal, Disability Service, Printing House Square, TCD and Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams Link: Join the meeting now
Meeting ID: 368 743 668 363
Overview: Hear from Disability Service staff about the latest research into AuDHD experiences and hear sample student stories based on Trinity students and the effective supports available.
Details:
Over the last twenty-five years, the disAbility Service in Trinity College Dublin has worked to support the needs of autistic students and those with ADHD, along with many other kinds of neurodiversity. Naturally, over this period, our understanding of neurodiversity itself and the experiences that fall under the neurodiversity umbrella has evolved rapidly. At the disAbility Service, we continue to embrace these changes as society’s understanding of individual experiences grows increasingly, and rightfully, nuanced.
More individuals than ever are receiving diagnoses of autism and ADHD – often later in life. Each year, the number of students registering with the Disability Service who identify as being autistic and having ADHD continues to grow, and with this rise comes the need to understand that to have both autism and ADHD might not simply be a combination of two easily delineated experiences, but instead, something distinctive entirely. As a result, the term ‘AuDHD’ has evolved amongst the community to capture the uniqueness of this experience.
Navigating university is a particularly unique experience for AuDHD students. Like many students’ experiences of disabilities and conditions, the measures taken to accommodate one’s needs might change in their efficacy on a daily, if not hourly, basis. With this often-individualised experience in mind, we are hosting a research seminar on the experiences of AuDHD individuals.
During the summer of 2024, Laidlaw scholar Juliet Cabraja participated in the Inclusive Internship Programme and worked with the Disability Service. She tirelessly captured existing research into AuDHD experiences and the narratives of Trinity’s own students. In this seminar, Juliet will present her findings.
Juliet will also be joined by Jen O’Connor, Disability and Employability Officer in the Disability Service, who will share sample student narratives in the hope that staff can gain greater insights into how best to support AuDHD students and students can become increasingly aware of possible supports available to them during their time at Trinity.