Our guest on today’s podcast is Jane Cooper, the founder and managing director of Access and Inclusion UK. They help businesses and destinations to understand the type of challenges that people with disabilities or accessibility requirements might have, and importantly, give them solutions to overcome them, through training, or whatever solution is required – thus providing accessibility for all.
Jane’s passion for her company is based on her own personal experience – of having her eldest child, Megan, born with an extremely rare chromosomal condition, and then also being diagnosed as autistic. After coming to terms with her daughter’s condition and learning how to cope with a life that was suddenly completely different to the one she had expected, she moved away from her previous career and into the one she has now.
Jane shares with us that people with autism are not all exactly the same. Like the rest of us, everyone is individual, and how one person behaves is not necessarily how someone else will behave. She also points out another misconception – that learning disabilities and autism are not linked! You can be autistic and not have learning difficulties.
She does talk about how she finds the autistic world fascinating, because of all the different ways people can be affected. And as she explains this is why it’s so hard to give advice to parents of a child newly diagnosed with autism.
Jane talks very clearly about sensory stimulation and how some autistic people are overstimulated or under-stimulated by different things. And she also explains how she learnt to deal with her daughter’s meltdowns – which was the complete opposite of what she had expected to do!
This is a fascinating insight into living with someone with autism.
You can contact Jane via
Her website : https://accessandinclusion.com/
Email: jane@accessandinclusion.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-cooper-accessandinclusionuk/
X: @accessandincuk
You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/
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