This week Monique interviews Professor Sandra Thom-Jones about aging as an autistic person. Sandra is an autistic author, artisan, academic, and advocate. She provides consultancy services to education, employment, and healthcare providers, and supports for autistic people, through her consultancy ‘Autistic Professor’. Sandra is the author of Growing in to Autism, and she has undertaken numerous research projects­ in partnership with the autistic community on the experiences of autistic people and the knowledge and attitudes towards autism in the community; including research that won the Autism CRC’s 2019 and 2021 awards for research translation and the 2022 award for inclusive research.

Monique and Sandra cover:

• Sandra’s experience of her neurodivergence throughout her life and her path to identifying her autistic neurotype.
• Why do older autistic adults tend to be ‘invisible’ to society at large, and what factors contribute to the support needs of this population?
• Generational trends in the understanding of and meaning associated with an autism diagnosis, and the implications for disclosure and self-advocacy.
• The unique needs of autistic folk when navigating later stages of life like menopause, increasing healthcare needs, aged care, retirement, and managing family changes and transitions.
• The importance of discarding neuro-normative expectations about what aging or retirement ‘should’ look like, and Sandra’s tips for a joyful retirement as an autistic person.

You can find more of Sandra’s work through her website – www.autisticprofessor.com – or follow her on Facebook (@autisticprofessor) or Instagram (@sandrathomjones_au_author).

Get a copy of Sandra’s book, Growing in to Autism, and pre-order her upcoming book, Autistics in Academia, through Cambridge University Press.

Follow Sandra on socials to stay updated on her next book, on the experiences of autistic people in the workplace!

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