Carole talks to Eleanor McSherry about her work in higher level education on Autism and Neurodiversity. Eleanor's work in this field is known as best international practice currently.

Eleanor is based in Limerick city, working fulltime for Adult Continuing Education at University College Cork (ACE at UCC). She has a Bachelor of Arts (hons) degree (Media Communications and Philosophy) and a Master of Arts (by research) from Mary Immaculate College (University of Limerick). She is currently doing her PhD by research in Maynooth University. She also has a Postgraduate (Level 9) Diploma in Teaching and Learning for Third Level from UCC and has two national forum badges in teaching through digital media. Eleanor is the Programme Coordinator and lecturer on the Diploma in Autism Studies and the Certificate in Practice Support in Social Farming. She lectures, part-time, on the Diploma in Disability Studies, Certificate in Mental Health in the Community, the Higher Diploma in Facilitating Inclusion and workshops on Advocacy and Neurodiversity. She is Programme Coordinator/Designer of the Certificate Professional Development in Neurodiversity in the Screen Industry (with Screen Ireland), Certificate in Professional Development in Advocacy, Wellbeing Coordinator pilot programme (with Screen Ireland) and the pilot programme in Neurodiversity in Human Resources, all with ACE at UCC. She also lectures and is a dissertation supervisor on the Professional Master of Education (Primary and Post Primary) with Hibernia College Dublin. Previously, she lectured on film and media with Limerick and Clare Education Training Board and Maynooth University. Her other areas of speciality are: policy and practice, the law and autism, representation of autism in the media, Neurodiversity, the concepts of mental health, film scriptwriting, journalism, philosophy, creative, script and academic writing. Eleanor co-founded the Special Needs Parents Association of Ireland with other parents in 2010, she was its first vice-chair, policy officer, moderated its social media and was on its executive. She was a full-time carer to her autistic son. The group helped over 57,000 families in the years it operated, unfortunately it closed in 2020. She has worked with and represented other disability groups both nationally/locally in the Irish media. She is also a well-known mental health and disability rights activist. She also cofounded the Limerick Arts and Culture Exchange (LACE), which advocates and supports for the cultural community in Limerick County Ireland. [email protected] ................ This podcast is for information purposes only and represents the views and opinions of the speakers. Always use your own discernment in relation to anything discussed. Any information presented relating to any aspect of health & well being is for information purposes only and is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. ...............