Always on
This project successfully funded on 10th June 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Autism Through Lived Experience
Romford, United Kingdom
Aim
To create an accessible artistic book that helps shift understanding, reduce stigma, and make space for neurodivergent voices.
Autism Through Lived Experience: Voices Spoken and Unspoken, A Collaborative Book Project
By Emily June Smith and Murray Bruce
Aim: To create an accessible artistic book that helps shift understanding, reduce stigma, and make space for neurodivergent voices.
Project Background
Across the UK, neurodivergent children are often misunderstood and disciplined instead of supported, they are separated from peers, denied social interaction and made to feel like a problem to be managed. Behaviour linked to autism is frequently misread as defiance, leading to exclusion and long-term harm.
This was artist Emily June Smith’s story and it’s not an isolated one, but a pattern within education systems that lack understanding, representation and appropriate support.
Now she is working with autistic writer Murray Bruce to create a new project addressing the lack of authentic, diverse representation of autistic lives, and a continued failure to listen to neurodivergent voices. This project uses visual and written storytelling to express experiences beyond words, including non-verbal communication.
Vision and Mission
Vision: A society where neurodivergent people are understood and valued.
Mission: To challenge stereotypes through a collaborative book combining photography and writing rooted in lived experience.
Project Outcomes
• A collaborative body of photographic and written work
• Focus groups delivered with neurodivergent participants
• A draft publication to be developed through further consultation with schools
• Engagement with schools and communities
• Amplifying underrepresented autistic voices
Impact
• Help neurodivergent people feel seen and understood
• Provide schools with more accurate, human-centred insight
• Challenge stereotypes and shift public attitudes
• Build empathy and reduce stigma
• Move understanding from judgement to connection.
Finances
I am raising 10% match funding to unlock £30,000 from Arts Council England.
Your support is pivotal, it directly enables this project to happen.
Funding will be used to support the research and development of collaborative workshops and the production of a draft publication.
Support and Backing
This project is led by artists with lived experience with support from Sonia Boué, consultant for neurodiversity in the arts. Organisational backing includes:
Their support will ensure the project has strong guidance, credibility and reach.
The Need
• Autistic pupils are more than twice as likely to be excluded from school as their peers
• 29% of autistic pupils are persistently absent, missing large parts of education
• 1 in 6 autistic children are not attending school at all
• Over 50% have experienced unlawful exclusion, often due to misunderstanding
• Around 25–30% of autistic people are non-speaking or minimally speaking, yet are often underestimated or excluded from meaningful communication
Why Me, Why Now
I am a neurodivergent visual artist and creative facilitator whose work transcends traditional documentary photography to explore deeply personal and social narratives. My work has been featured in publications including National Geographic and Financial Times.
This work comes from lived experience, not observation. I was part of the 50% of autistic school pupils who are unlawfully excluded for behaviours that are part of being neurodivergent.
Without change, these experiences continue, reinforcing isolation, limiting opportunity, and shaping how individuals see themselves. Awareness of neurodiversity is growing, but real understanding is still missing. Now is the time to change that.
Who Benefits
• Neurodivergent individuals (visibility, connection)
• Schools (better understanding and inclusion)
• Families and carers (insight and empathy)
• Wider society (challenging stigma)
Long-Term Impact
• Unlock £30,000 in funding
• Create a publication for schools and communities
• Shift perceptions of autism
• Increase representation of diverse voices
This is about lasting change, from isolation to understanding.
Closing Statement
“No child should grow up believing they are the problem.”
This project creates space for voices that have been overlooked, spoken or not.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made