For my Leadership in Action Project, I worked with Trinity College Dublin’s Disability Service (TCD DS). TCD DS played a crucial part in my research project last summer in sharing information about my study, participant information leaflets, and consent forms to students as potential participants. As such, I wanted to work for TCD DS to gain further insight into their programmes and return the favour for their help in my Laidlaw journey. My work with TCD DS spanned twelve weeks, with my LiA project comprising the first six. In the latter six, I participated in their Inclusive Internship Programme, working on a separate project. In this blog post I will outline my LiA project, my experiences working with TCD DS, and my hopes for the outcomes of my project moving forward.

In my research from last summer, I identified a strong pattern of participants' expressing the benefits of community in increasing self-acceptance and understanding of one’s disability and supports. As such, when I met with TCD DS staff, we mutually identified community as a key theme for my project. More specifically, the focus of my LiA was the peer support groups offered by TCD DS. Currently, TCD DS offers peer groups for autistic students and students with ADHD. Last school year, the ADHD group was structured around informational sessions and discussion meetings, whereas the autism group was organized as a “drop-in” space for students to meet each other and chat informally.  My role was to assess students’ experiences with peer groups, whether run by TCD DS or otherwise, and to gain insight into their preferences for peer group structures and characteristics. To do so, I conducted an in-depth literature review into peer support group standards and measures of efficacy and sought out examples of peer-led groups for autistic individuals and individuals with ADHD. I used the common themes from this research to develop a survey for students to ask about their expectations and goals for attending peer groups. Prior to developing this survey, I read literature on drafting accessible feedback pathways and created a “best-practices,” document for staff to reference in this process. Following an analysis of the survey data, my supervisor and I conducted interviews and focus groups with interested students. I combined these data sources to draft recommendations for improving the peer groups in future school years. Notably, I had a meeting with a researcher from the Community Autism Peer Specialist (CAPS) Service out of the Philadelphia Autism Project to learn more about their peer-training process. CAPS is a unique service because it provides autistic peer support, rather than matching an autistic individual with a non-autistic peer. This conversation informed my recommendations to staff and opened my mind to international projects in the sphere of autism peer supports.

The main outputs from my LiA are as follows:

1. Research informed guidelines on accessible feedback pathways (surveys, focus groups, and interviews).
2. Feedback and suggested actions for the improvement of existing peer support groups offered by TCD DS.
3. Compiled research notes on peer support groups, peer-facilitator programs, and peer-facilitator training.

I hope these outputs will benefit TCD DS in upcoming school year as they review and improve their programmes. Importantly, TCD DS offers extensive supports to students, and the participants praised staff for their helpfulness, kindness, and understanding. My role was to contribute to the use of research in the development and maintenance of their programmes, given that their opportunities to conduct literature reviews and projects are limited due to student case load. My LiA project is sustainable, given that the output documents that are now available to TCD DS staff can be referenced efficiently to support future work.

My work during the second half of my summer, though not a component of my LiA, relates to my research from last summer. I conducted a research project into the experiences of autistic students with ADHD, otherwise known as AuDHD students, at Trinity. I employed similar methodology as last summer and analysed semi-structured interviews and a focus group conducted by my supervisor. I engaged in an extensive literature review on existing literature on AuDHD and a philosophical inquiry into the biopsychosocial model of disability and emancipatory research practices, both of which informed my analysis and report. I applied components of my LiA project throughout this process including when developing the initial surveys to contact participants and writing about the importance of peer support spaces identified in the literature and interview transcripts. In this way, the outputs from my LiA project informed my research and hopefully can be applied by other TCD DS staff in future studies.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work at TCD DS. My Laidlaw experience last summer sparked my passion for disability rights, inclusion, and community. Working in an office that champions values was enriching and highly educational. I am finishing this summer with a newfound perspective on potential post-university paths, an improved sense of self-acceptance, and an excitement for future engagement with the community I gained during this period.