Imagine choosing a university through the lens of a neurodivergent student asking one singular question, "Will I be able to thrive here?" This session explores how higher education can serve the strengths of neurodiverse learners through embracing inclusive teaching methodologies alongside individual learning strategies. Through personal storytelling (as a dyslexic person myself) and practical examples, the session will cover how inclusive strategies within and outside the classroom can work to create a new understanding of how we can learn. The session will invite participants to rethink what inclusion looks like and how it could be implemented in practice.

This session translates findings from a national, longitudinal project examining autistic undergraduates’ perspectives on friendship and belonging. Grounded in a disability belonging framework that emphasizes social relationships and self advocacy, we highlight how autistic students describe building connections in ways that may not match conventional campus expectations, but still foster genuine community. Three student-defined pathways to friendship and belonging will be discussed, including engaging in autistic spaces, practicing autistic authenticity (including the opportunities and risks of unmasking), and bonding over shared interests.

What happens when art is recognized as serious higher education? This session shares a case from India that reimagines university pathways through studio-based learning for neurodivergent learners with moderate to severe autism. At Sense Kaleidoscopes, creative practice is a site of rigor, attention, emotional regulation, and shared work. The studio becomes a space where belonging grows naturally and learning unfolds without fear. By centering dignity, mastery, and contribution, this session invites participants to rethink what rigor, inclusion, and joy can mean in higher education today.

This copresented session shares the joyful learning journey of Tomas, a young man with complex communication needs whose confidence, agency, and sense of belonging have grown through the combined power of music, community participation, and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Using short film clips and lived examples from Sheiling College—a specialist college for neurodivergent young adults aged 19–25—the presentation highlights how accessible communication, sensory‑rich environments, and the celebration of special interests can unlock authentic self‑expression. Rather than focusing on deficits, the session centres neurodivergent joy: the creative, relational, and identity‑affirming experiences that emerge when students are supported to use the communication methods that work best for them. Tomas will contribute directly using his AAC device, offering insight into how he communicates, connects, and expresses himself through music and interaction. Participants will gain practical, transferable strategies for fostering belonging and communication in higher education and community settings, seeing how inclusive pedagogy and relational listening can shift institutional narratives. This session models a collaborative, student‑centred approach that honours diverse communication styles and amplifies neurodivergent voices.

 

This interactive Jeopardy-style session invites participants to explore the concept of Neurodivergent Joy through play, reflection, and community learning. Moving beyond compliance-based accommodations, the session highlights how higher education can foster authentic belonging, creativity, and well-being for neurodivergent students, faculty, and staff. Participants will engage with real-world scenarios, inclusive teaching strategies, and campus practices that promote joy-centered design. By combining gamification with critical reflection, this session models how joyful, accessible learning environments can transform institutional culture and support neurodivergent success across CUNY and beyond.

This session explores how Black feminist theory and Disability Studies deepen our understanding of belonging, neurodiversity, and community-building in higher education. Drawing on the work of Audre Lorde and bell hooks, the panel centers belonging as an active, collective practice. Scholars and practitioners trained in Disability Studies reflect on how lived experience, intersectionality, and Black feminist methodologies reshape approaches to special education and neurodiverse communities. Blending scholarship, narrative, and praxis, this session offers reflective and practical tools for fostering access, dignity, and thriving for Black, neurodivergent, and disabled students.

Join this roundtable discussion and share your experience! Facilitated by a staff psychologist, a disability specialist, and neurodivergent peer educator(s), this session will highlight the importance of campus partnerships in creating an affirming community that encourages neurodivergent student innovation and joy! Drawing on both literature and lived experience, facilitators will share approaches to foster impactful campus relationships, design student-centered programming, and develop sustainable inclusionary initiatives. The roundtable will provide guidance on applying lessons learned, building community, while holding space for critical discussion exploring campus-wide change through a neuro-inclusive lens.

In higher education, disclosing disability and/or neurodivergence is often met with a lack of understanding, outright suspicion, and the implications that one’s traits are unprofessional. This stigma often prevents individuals from being their authentic selves and accessing the support they need. Less than 10% of disabled, chronically ill, or neurodivergent professionals in the US report their condition to their employer (Hassard et al., 2024). However, broadening our lens to include neurodivergent and disabled joy is necessary to dismantle barriers to success and belonging. Participants will curate a collection of strategies and resources around building joyful, neurodivergent-affirming workspaces.

Drawing on bell hooks’ insight that humor sustains social justice movements, this presentation examines radical humor as a relational, meaning-making, and resistant practice among neurodivergent college students. Grounded in critical neurodiversity and critical disability studies, it presents findings from a narrative inquiry with ten neurodivergent students at a large public research university. Using collaborative storytelling, the study centers participants as epistemic authorities on their own experiences. Findings show how students mobilize humor to navigate institutional expectations, mitigate burnout, cultivate relational safety, and critique systems of disablement in higher education. The session concludes with collective reflection on humor, joy, and resistance in participants’ institutional contexts.

Nursing and midwifery education often compounds trauma and burnout, especially for neurodivergent learners whose needs remain overlooked. Our collaborative investigates the structural barriers facing neurodivergent students, including faculty preparedness and stigma, disclosure risks, and inaccessible assessment practices. Drawing on findings from the FPQ‑N and ongoing studies, we demonstrate how integrating trauma‑informed pedagogy with TILT, UDL, and CBE creates inclusive, predictable, and rigor‑preserving learning environments. This session offers concrete tools for redesigning courses and clinical evaluations toward inclusion, belonging, and neurodivergent joy, ensuring disabled and neurodivergent students can thrive and strengthen the future nursing workforce.

In this workshop, we will discuss existing conscious and unconscious barriers faced by neurodivergent graduate and medical students in the U.S. to provide a foundation for a robust discussion of community building and problem-solving to create a more joyous postsecondary educational experience for neurodivergent students. By centering facilitator-audience interaction and guided discussion, we hope to uplift students, educators, and community members as knowers and co-creators of their educational environments.

Neurodivergent students across CUNY often encounter barriers that extend beyond access to accommodations, including unmet mental health needs, exclusionary practices, and limited opportunities for authentic belonging. This session highlights a neurodiversity-affirming model developed at LaGuardia Community College that integrates mental health support, executive functioning coaching, Universal Design for Learning, and intersectional inclusion strategies. Through case examples, practitioner dialogue, and audience reflection, participants will explore practical approaches for shifting campus narratives from compliance-based access toward neurodivergent joy, autonomy, and belonging across academic and student support spaces.

Joy Beyond Speech: Learning, Identity, and Belonging as a Minimally Speaking Autistic College Student Neurodivergent joy in higher education is often defined through the lens of independence, verbal participation, and behavioral compliance. For minimally speaking autistic students, these assumptions can unintentionally limit access, belonging, and authentic engagement. This session centers the lived experience and leadership of Akhil Lad, a minimally speaking autistic college student who communicates primarily through typing, to reframe how joy, learning, and identity can flourish beyond speech. Through typed communication, supported facilitation, and reflective engagement, Akhil shares how alternative communication, sensory regulation, and movement-aware learning environments have shaped his academic participation and sense of belonging. Rather than positioning communication differences as deficits, the session highlights how communication autonomy and respect create conditions for joy—defined as agency, dignity, and the freedom to learn without masking or conformity. This presentation invites participants to examine how higher education systems often equate participation with speech and speed, inadvertently excluding non-speaking and minimally speaking students from full engagement. Akhil reflects on what has enabled him to thrive in college contexts, including trusted communication partners, flexible pacing, interest-based learning, and environments that honor sensory and regulatory needs. These elements are presented not as special accommodations, but as inclusive practices that benefit a broad range of learners. The session also draws connections between regulation, emotional safety, and learning readiness, emphasizing how joy and academic success are intertwined for neurodivergent students. Participants will gain insight into how honoring diverse communication styles supports self-advocacy, mental well-being, and persistence in higher education. Designed as an interactive breakout session, the presentation incorporates live typed responses, guided reflection prompts, and opportunities for audience participation. Attendees will be invited to reflect on their own assumptions about communication, participation, and competence, and to consider how institutional practices can shift from accommodation toward genuine belonging. By centering neurodivergent voice and experience, this session offers higher education professionals a powerful opportunity to listen, learn, and reimagine inclusive learning environments where neurodivergent joy is not incidental—but foundational.

This study embraces a neurodivergence-affirming framework that centers autistic strengths and lived experience. Focusing on character strengths such as curiosity and honesty, it explores how knowing about and using these strengths in everyday life may support the well-being of autistic university students. Autistic students from two Ontario universities shared their experiences of strengths, well-being, school engagement, and autistic burnout. We expect that greater strengths awareness and use will relate to higher well-being and engagement, and lower burnout. This talk brings strengths to the forefront, highlighting character strengths as a powerful pathway to well-being, resilience, and neurodivergent joy in higher education.

What began as a collaborative autoethnographic study of five adult-diagnosed neurodivergent women in academia evolved into a vibrant community space centered on neurodivergent joy and affirmation. Through written and oral storytelling, preliminary findings reveal that limited exposure to other neurodivergent individuals fosters internalized stigma, self-denial, and unmet needs among women in higher education. In-group community, however, promotes healing and improved perceived mental health. As diagnoses of autism and ADHD increase among women, many still lack institutional support and safe spaces to unmask. This immersive panel invites neurodivergent participants into storytelling and dialogue to model community-building, strengths-based sense-making, and neurodivergent flourishing.

Long term masking can be deadly but unmasking in an ableist world is terrifying. The safety of neurodivergent (ND) friendship serves as a reprieve from this double edged sword; a unique opportunity to feel and reciprocate the calming joy of being oneself. As we shift the tide from compliance to empowerment, it is crucial to elevate these relationships as pockets of neurodivergent freedom.

This 50-minute virtual breakout session draws on the Neurodivergent Student Initiative at the University of South Carolina and integrates emerging empirical findings from a student survey on neurodivergence, presenting our World Café method for gathering qualitative findings. Participants can expect to be immersed into a brief, adapted World Café experience to explore how structured dialogue can support neurodivergent students in articulating priorities, needs, and sources of joy related to campus inclusion. They will leave with ideas for practical, adaptable methods for engaging neurodivergent students in ways that move beyond compliance toward belonging and joy.

Physical spaces play a vital yet often overlooked role in fostering belonging, safety, and success in higher education. This session centers neurodivergent perspectives to explore how existing campus spaces can move beyond basic accessibility toward intentional, joy-centered inclusion. Grounded in lived experience, student feedback, cultural awareness, and neurodiversity-affirming design, it examines how environments can create barriers or build connection. Participants will consider the impact of sensory input on daily engagement, as well as how communication, marketing, safety, and maintenance decisions shape who feels welcome. The session highlights a spectrum of accessibility, from low-cost improvements to fully developed sensory-friendly spaces.

This session, showcases an innovative and underutilized strategy for closing persistent employment gaps for students with disabilities: disability-specific alumni mentorship networks. Drawing on experience working across universities in the United States and Canada through Lime Connect’s Foundations Program and insights from MPhil research at the University of Cambridge, the session offers practical steps for creating inclusive, scalable mentorship initiatives. Participants will explore how to collaborate across career services, alumni relations, and employer partners to build accessible pathways, while hearing stories from mentors and mentees that illustrate the real-world impact of mentorship on confidence, disclosure, and career outcomes.

This session explores how intentionally designing a neuro-affirming learning container—grounded in a bio-psycho-social model of the whole person—can shift professional education away from exceptionality and toward belonging. Learning environments are not neutral; they reflect implicit norms about how knowledge is processed, expressed, and valued, often privileging neuro-normative performance even when inclusion is stated as a goal. This virtual panel brings together program leaders from Coaching Neurodiversity at Work and alumni from the course which is delivered through the University of British Columbia’s Extended Learning, to examine how Universal Design, Universal Design for Learning, and a model of courageous conversations foster neurodivergent joy in learning that creates ripple effects in coaching practice and workplace systems.

This session, showcases an innovative and underutilized strategy for closing persistent employment gaps for students with disabilities: disability-specific alumni mentorship networks. Drawing on experience working across universities in the United States and Canada through Lime Connect’s Foundations Program and insights from MPhil research at the University of Cambridge, the session offers practical steps for creating inclusive, scalable mentorship initiatives. Participants will explore how to collaborate across career services, alumni relations, and employer partners to build accessible pathways, while hearing stories from mentors and mentees that illustrate the real-world impact of mentorship on confidence, disclosure, and career outcomes.

Practicum supervision offers a critical opportunity to either reinforce systemic marginalization or foster belonging and agency. For neurodivergent students, particularly those with executive functioning differences, traditional supervision models often rely on deficit-based assumptions, narrow definitions of professionalism, and compliance-driven support. This interactive workshop reimagines supervision through the lens of neurodivergent joy, a concept rooted in disability studies and inclusive pedagogy, which centers authenticity, dignity, creativity, and flexibility as essential to learning and professional development.

Anchored in neurodiversity-affirming beliefs, a strengths-based group coaching program for neurodivergent STEM students was piloted. Each group was facilitated by trained coaches who used the Coaching in Context model to guide sessions in a flexible manner responsive to the individual participant needs. The results from the pilot were promising with high attendance, increased self-rated performance and satisfaction on self-chosen goals, and qualitative feedback that participants built community, felt supported, and experienced increased self-determination. This presentation will introduce some foundational coaching techniques (e.g., creating accepting environments, leading with curiosity, supporting individual strategies). Additionally, a student member will share their experience with coaching.

In this session, participants will: (1) learn about one study exploring teacher candidate perceptions of disabled teachers, (2) explore how teacher education programs can support disabled and neurodivergent teacher candidates, and (3) hear from one disabled and neurodivergent researcher on how neurodivergent joy shapes our way of being in academia. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their own ways of being in academia related to teaching, service, and scholarship. The presentation will include an interactive discussion around strategies and practices to experience joy as disabled and neurodivergent academics through our practices in higher education.

This session takes inclusive educators into crip cyberspace, sharing research into resistant pedagogy within online neurodivergent community. Using critical discourse analysis, this research collected three months of TikTok posts made by self-identified neurodivergent individuals, to examine online neurodivergent community through the lens of “crip liberatory pedagogy.” This lens is informed by the principles of disability justice, Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed, and Kafai (2021)’s discussion of education within disabled, queer of color community. Session participants will gain ideas for fostering inclusion within their educational spaces grounded in the pedagogical methods and curricular content of neurodivergent community on social media.

Autistic students in higher education often move through cycles of deep engagement, joy, and focus followed by periods of burnout and reduced capacity. This session reframes autistic burnout not as a failure to cope, but as a predictable response to institutional demands that conflict with monotropism and neurodivergent rhythms. Participants will explore indicators of autistic burnout, identify institutional contributors to the joy–burnout cycle, and learn how to accommodate rather than eliminate these patterns. Attendees will leave with practical strategies and a Joy and Burnout Care Plan worksheet to support autistic students in sustaining joy, recovery, and academic participation.