Neurodivergent-friendly means everyone benefits
Posted: 10/02/2025Nick Avery is the CEO of South West Autism Network (SWAN) in Bussleton, Western Australia, a not-for-profit organisation that grew out of a very real need for families in regional areas to have access to support, information, community networks and advocacy.
SWAN’s vision is both simple and life-changing; to create communities where every autistic person is able to live the life they choose.
It’s both Nick’s passion and her lived experience. Her two children, now in their 20s, both live with autism and Nick herself was diagnosed at the age of 43.
‘Both my kids were diagnosed as toddlers in 2000 and 2002,’ she says, ‘but living in regional WA, there was no access to early intervention therapy outside of Perth.
‘Every week I would drive four hours each way so they could access therapy services. I wanted to change that experience for autistic people and families in regional areas.’
What began as small peer support group has grown into an organisation that supports hundreds of clients every week, providing specialised programs, resources and advocacy, while linking families and individuals to services. Everyone at SWAN either has a disability, is a family member of a person with disability, or both.
‘When you’re feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, and are desperate to find support, being able to talk to someone who’s been there and can help you navigate these complex systems not only creates hope, but also access to practical, meaningful support,’ Nick says.
Being diagnosed later in life—mostly due to the cost involved in going through the process—Nick understands better than most just how hard the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) can be to navigate.
She describes herself as being ‘very detail-oriented’ which can be a great strength in some situations, and real struggle when dealing with bureaucratic systems.
‘I struggle with a lot of sensory issues, particularly in social or work situations where I’m confronted with a question or statement that I don’t have a memorised script for dealing with,’ she explains. ‘Job interviews are a particular area that I’ve struggled with throughout my adult life. I’ve never successfully achieved employment through a job interview.’
Her lived experience means that when Nick is listening to her clients explain what’s going on for them or their family, they quickly realise she ‘gets it’.
‘When supporting our clients, it’s really important they feel heard; that their concerns and difficulties are acknowledged,’ Nick says. ‘We can then provide information, resources, strategies and support to empower them to make decisions about what to do next. They can get the support that actually meets their needs.’
Nick has been a long-time fan of Innovative Resources’ card sets and finds them really useful in her day-to-day work with SWAN clients.
Image from The Bears
‘The Bears cards are fantastic for learning to recognise and understand emotions,’ she says, ‘something that doesn’t come naturally to many autistic people. It needs to be explicitly taught to many of us. The Bears can help to identify and connect the nuances of similar and related emotions.’
Body Signals is another of Nick’s favourites for exploring interoception—commonly defined as ‘the ability to be aware of internal sensations in the body’. Things like recognising when you’re feeling hungry, full, thirsty, or need to use the bathroom—but also recognising the signals from the body that indicate anxiety, overwhelm, anger, excitement, tiredness or illness.
‘For autistic people, connecting body signals with emotions is so important for improving emotional regulation, reducing sensory overwhelm and improving self-care,’ Nick says.
‘I’ve used Body Signals a lot with an autistic youth who struggles with severe anxiety that triggers frustration, anger and meltdowns. They’ve been able to use the cards to identify what they’re feeling in their body and connect those symptoms with the emotions.
‘It’s a huge achievement for this particular young person, and we’re hoping, with practice, they’ll be able to recognise the signs of their anxiety building before the point of overwhelm.’
Image from Strength Cards
Strength Cards® have also been a great tool for working with young people, especially in building self-esteem. SWAN mentors often do an activity with kids and youth where they create an A3 poster with a photo of themself in the middle, and Strength Cards® stickers around the image to represent their unique strengths.
‘Autistic kids hear so many negative things about themselves, and very little about their strengths,’ Nick says. ‘Watching them proudly show their parents the poster of their strengths at pick-up time is one of my favourite things. We encourage them to put the poster up in their bedroom as a reminder of how awesome they are.’
While things are slowly improving for neurodivergent people, including those with autism, Nick says we still have such a long way to go to make communities truly inclusive.
The autistic community call it the double empathy problem. Neurotypical people socialise and interact really well with neurotypical people, and autistic people socialise and interact really well with autistic people. It’s when neurotypical people and autistic people try to interact and socialise that things typically go pear-shaped.
‘It’s a bit like visiting another country which has very different customs and colloquialisms,’ Nick says. ‘Misunderstandings are guaranteed. The problem for autistic people is that our way of thinking and interacting is assumed to be wrong and the neurotypical way of thinking and interacting is assumed to be right.’
Nick uses the example of shared environments as a way to highlight the impasse.
Image from Body Signals
‘While many people with autism don’t get enough signal from their interoceptive senses, most of us get too much signal from some of our other senses,’ she explains. ‘Too much noise, too much light, strong smells … these can all cause pain, distress and overwhelm. Many of us can hear fluorescent lights buzzing and find bright lights excruciating.
‘Crowds are overwhelming for most of us, and trying to focus in on what one person is saying in a sea of other voices and sounds can be impossible. Neurotypicals who don’t experience these issues are often dismissive.’
Nick would like to see a world where more people adopt an open-minded, curious approach when interacting with autistic people, and environments specifically designed to be sensory-friendly.
‘Time and again I’ve watched accommodations made for autistic people in classrooms and other environments, and neurotypical people have benefited from the changes. When environments and systems are made neurodivergent-friendly, everyone wins.
‘People are increasingly acknowledging that there are strengths as well as difficulties in being autistic, rather than seeing it as merely a grab-bag of deficits. But there’s still a long way to go to achieve equity.’
By John Holton
Great article. As the proud parent of a young adult with autism, thank you Nick and team!
Thanks, Renee. SWAN do amazing work over there in the west. We are so grateful to Nick for sharing her story.