Include Summit 2024
If you create a safe space for people to share their different experience of the world you can be an enabler. You can help people step out of their comfort zone and achieve things beyond their limits.
Include Summit 2024 panel with Sarah Jones, Lily Morgan, Mikey Mottram and Olivia Rae
Neurodiverse Sport Co-Founder Mikey Mottram and I recently spoke on a panel at the UK's number one Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Summit for Sport- the Include Summit. The impressive Lee Valley VeloPark, a world class venue where British Olympians and Paralympians dominated the track in 2012, served as a backdrop for our discussions on Neuroinclusive practice in Sport. I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to share my thoughts in person for the first time since discovering my own Neurodiversity.
The whole experience from preparation to completion highlighted the importance of embedding Neuroinclusion in all that we do. A walk around the venue the day before was useful so I could familiarise myself with the space and plan routes from the stage to a quiet space that avoided added sensory overload. In the run up to the day, having a one-to-one conversation with the panel facilitator was a key step to enable me to take part. Discussions centred around what I was comfortable with speaking about, as well as talking through my fears. Having the safe space to articulate myself and plan for different eventualities was a massive comfort. The compassion and understanding shown by literally everyone I spoke to helped make this experience less daunting.
Include Summit 2024 panel with Sarah Jones, Lily Morgan, Mikey Mottram and Olivia Rae
On the day itself being able to bring a person along who can advocate for me was another enabler - along with sharing the stage with Mikey, where we could both advocate for and support each other where necessary. A simple “Are you ok” from Mikey who was sat next to me helped me navigate a tricky part where I was struggling to speak because of the background noise in my headphones. On reflection, sharing this with the room as it was happening was an important step to show my lived experience.
The facilitator shared with the audience at the beginning of the discussion that part of being an inclusive event means putting things in place for the Neurodivergent panellists - that they may even need to step off stage if experiencing sensory overwhelm. This provided me with a sense of comfort and helped me immensely.
It can be hard to advocate for your needs and ask for support especially when these parts of your experience of the world have been ignored and consequently suppressed. A key message for everyone is that as a speaker you deserve the optimum conditions to thrive. And although not everything can be in your control, and not every venue is completely neuroinclusive, you can assess the risks and access support.
We navigated the panel successfully, authentically and we hope that we gave the people listening something to takeaway and reflect on. There were some very insightful questions from the audience and conversations are ongoing with connections made on the day.
Special thanks to Sarah Jones from Access Sport who was the facilitator, Eira Parry my advocate for the day from Switch The Play Foundation, Andrea Barlow from Include Summit and my fellow panellists Mikey Mottram and Lily Morgan.