OTARC Director’s report February 2024

A fresh year has begun and the second year of our re-imagined OTARC! I hope you were all able to have at least a little down time over the holiday period.

At OTARC, the hallways are buzzing again. This time, the office re-shuffle is in full swing! Creating neurodiversity-affirming workspaces is an idea gaining traction in the broader community and at OTARC, we aim to practice what we preach. This includes attention to smaller details such as dimmable lighting, provision of headphones for staff in shared office spaces and fidget toys at meetings. But it is also some of the bigger things like understanding our own and other’s preferred working and communication styles and advocating for space planning that accounts for neurodiversity. Credit is due to our Centre Manager, Doug Scobie, for steering this process. As you’ll see in this month’s newsletter, OTARC has been on the forefront of research to understand what leads to employment success for Autistic people. We hope to enact findings from this research in our day-to-day practice.