What next for autistics in the academy? In this chapter participants reflect on their career aspirations: the roles they aspire to and their expectations as to whether they will achieve their career goals. For those goals that seem out of reach, this chapter tries to answer the question of whether the barriers are intrinsic to being autistic or are systemic and structural.

This chapter explores the experience of receiving a diagnosis (or reaching a point of self-diagnosis) and how this diagnosis impacted the participants and their self-identity. It examines the extent to which they have developed (or are developing) a positive autistic identity, and the terminology they use to describe themselves and their diagnosis.

In this chapter participants reflect on the steps that senior academics and academic institutions could do to better support early career autistic academics. They also reflect candidly on the things that non-autistic colleagues and friends could do to make them feel more comfortable in both work and social settings.

This chapter describes the thirty-seven autistic academics who share their stories in this book. In a different world they would be introduced to the reader by name, with their unique personalities, interests, and gifts described. However, we live in a world where autism is still very much stigmatised and where disclosure comes with significant risks to career progression and social inclusion. Thus, many of the participants have asked to remain anonymous, and their combined stories are shared in a way that gives the reader a sense of their diversity while maintaining their anonymity.

The academic stereotype of the absent-minded professor who is valued for their in-depth subject knowledge and whose quirks and eccentricities are accepted by their peers is as faulty as the stereotype of the autistic as a white, adolescent, male maths wizard. Today’s academics are expected to teach, research, and engage in administrative and other activities. In this chapter thirty-two of the participants provide advice to autistic people considering a career in academia. They emphasise the importance of knowing what the role entails, both its strengths and its challenges; finding the right people to work with and to seek counsel from; knowing (and valuing) yourself; developing resilience; maintaining your well-being; and following your passion.

The field of autism research is moving from its troubled history of research on autistic people to research with autistic people. This recognition of the need for research both with and by autistic people means there is also a need to understand the extent to which autism conferences include or exclude the voices of autistic people. In this chapter, participants reflect on their experiences in attending conferences as recipients of knowledge, active participants in the conversation, and conveyors of information. Topics discussed include sensory issues, conference organisation, social interaction and networking, in-session interaction, in-session information, inclusion, and online conferences.

This book reflects the lived experiences of thirty-eight autistic academics (including the author). While the reflections were collected at a specific point in time – July 2020 to June 2021 – our adventures in academia have continued. Some of us have gone on to achieve career success beyond anything we imagined was possible; some of us have remained in the roles we were in at the time of writing; and some of us have left academia due to the toll of working in an environment that can be very hostile to autistic ways of thinking and being.

As interdisciplinary work inquires into the scope and content of the right to freedom of thought, we confront two crucial questions; for the purposes of this legal right, what should qualify as thought and what makes thought free? This chapter draws upon philosophical and psychological literature to suggest answers to these questions. First, we argue that thought does not only occur in a forum internum inside our heads. We propose that the right to freedom of thought should recognise and protect two types of what we call forum externum thought. Type 1 is ‘extended thought’. This occurs when we extend our mind using features of our body or environment, such as diary use and internet search (under certain circumstances). Type 2 is ‘thoughtspeech’. This occurs when we speak with others to think aloud together. We propose Type 1 and Type 2 forum externum thought should receive absolute protection only when they are employed for the purposes of self-government and truth-seeking respectively. We then turn to the question of what makes thought free. Here we focus on how the ‘trust and glue’ criteria for the extended mind can inform our consideration of what should count as impermissible alteration of extended thought. We conclude by pointing to the need for future transdisciplinary work to support the development of this right.