Neuro Inclusion Challenges and Opportunities in Cyber Security And Technology: Autism Perspectives | The Academy | A Conversation With Marcelle Ciampi And Daniel Browne

Since the dawn of humanity, fear of the unknown has been part of who we are as individuals and societies. On one side, it drove our desire to learn; on the other, it created some of our civilizations' worst traits.

While it seems fair enough many moons ago, it is hard to believe that today, our societies are still experiencing the harmful waves of such primordial instinct in way too many instances.

As with many things in life, a lack of understanding tends to create a sense of refusal and shield our experiences from what is different and what we do not comprehend — moreover, it takes away from the incredible value that such diversity brings to bear. Even our modern, so-called civilized and advanced societies are not welcoming to what is different. Luckily something is moving in the right direction — diversity and inclusion conversations are taking place. Still, it is not enough. So, what do we do about it?

The first steps are to raise awareness and to help create an understanding rooted in science and facts, leveraging the art of story-telling so people, teams, and organizations can truly appreciate and embrace the traits, skills, and overall goodness that neurodivergent individuals bring to the table.

As a straightforward example to demonstrate a point of common misunderstanding: we give you two words — autism and neurodiversity. Sometimes people think they are hand in hand; one in the same; the same thing. This isn't exactly true. Beyond knowing what the clinical definition is, it's equally important to understand the perspective that neurodivergent (another word to understand, BTW) individuals may have — remembering to avoid wide-sweeping stereotypes that could be used to place people in buckets that may be then used to treat them differently in a negative or otherwise limiting fashion.

In this podcast, we hear Daniel and Marcelle's stories. We try to understand the basics and the real-life examples that — we hope — could represent the first of many steps necessary to realize what neurodiversity is and what REAL inclusion means in the workspace.

We cannot merely cover such complex topics in one short podcast, and it is our intention to carry this conversation as far and as deep as possible — doing our part  to help make a real difference.

For now, hopefully, you can start by thinking about it. 

Guest(s)
Marcelle Ciampi (pen name Samantha Craft), International Neurodiversity Trainer, Workplace Inclusion Specialist, Author, Keynote, Global Outreach, Advocate (@aspergersgirls on Twitter)

Daniel CM Browne SSCP Ex-CEH, Founder of the Autistic Spectrum IT/Cyber Security Recruitment Initiative

Resources
LinkedIn Group — The Autistic Spectrum IT/CyberSecurity Recruitment Initiative: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13617254/

Blog — Everyday Autistic: https://everydayautistic.wordpress.com/

Article — The Autistic Spectrum IT/Cyber Security Recruitment Initiative

This Episode’s Sponsors
Bugcrowd: https://itspm.ag/itspbgcweb
Devo: https://itspm.ag/itspdvweb

To see and hear more The Academy content on ITSPmagazine, visit:
https://www.itspmagazine.com/the-academy

Are you interested in sponsoring an ITSPmagazine Channel?
https://www.itspmagazine.com/podcast-series-sponsorships