Cultural Responsiveness: Crafting Safer Spaces for Autistic LGBTQIA+ Clients

SLP

Speech-language Pathologists (SLPs) play a predominant role in care coordination for Autistic clients and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) community. Some clients we see are receiving care in connection with their identity status (e.g., Autistic individuals working on social cognition and pragmatics, Transgender or Gender Nonconforming (TGNC) individuals engaging in gender-affirming voice and communication therapy), while other times members of each of these communities receive care for communication needs unrelated to these identities (e.g., a lesbian traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivor). Research shows that Autistic individuals are more likely to identify as LGBTQIA+ than non-Autistic individuals, and transgender and gender-diverse individuals demonstrate an increased likelihood of being diagnosed as Autistic or reporting characteristics of Autism than cisgender counterparts. Given the high concordance between LGBTQIA+ identity and Autism, SLPs, therefore, have an ethical responsibility to deliver culturally responsive care to these communities. During the course of this presentation, participants will learn terminology relating to LGBTQIA+ and Autistic identities and receive insight into the lived experiences of members of these communities. Participants will learn to foster “safer” spaces to support LGBTQIA+ and Autistic clients, and will identify places where bias can show up within themselves, workspaces, and broader systems in order to prevent and counteract these biases.

Presenters

Ry Pilchman
M.S., CCC-SLP
Ry Pilchman (they/them) is a transgender, nonbinary, queer and neurodivergent Speech-language Pathologist (SLP). Ry specializes in providing gender affirming voice and communication training, treating voice disorders, and working with pediatric speech and language clients ages 0-3 years. They live in New York City and are licensed in both New Jersey and New York. They are a clinician for a private practice, Prismatic Speech Services, adjunct clinical educator/professor within Rutgers University’s MS program in Speech-Language Pathology, and outpatient SLP with Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health in New Brunswick, NJ.

Learning Objectives

Define terminology that Autistic and LGBTQIA+ communities use to describe their identities and communities
Identify examples of bias (e.g., internalized ableism, homophobia, transphobia) as they commonly present in clinical SLP settings in order to create “safer” spaces for LGBTQIA+ and Autistic clients
Describe intersections of LGBTQIA+ and Autistic identities as they relate to clinical practice

Agenda

5 minutes	Introduction/ Disclosures/ Learning Outcomes
5 minutes	Autism and LGBTQIA+ Overlap in Research
5 minutes	Overview of LGBTQIA+ Terminology and Identities
5 minutes	Overview of Neurodiverse Terminology
5 minutes	What is Bias?
5 minutes	Combating internal and external biases
5 minutes	Understanding Trauma and Trauma Informed Care
10 minutes	Reducing Biases When Working with LGBTQIA+ Community
10 minutes	Reducing Biases When Working with Autistic Population
5 minutes	Questions/Closing Remarks

Disclosures

Speakers - Financial	Ry Pilchman (they/them) is being compensated for their presentation by Bright Ideas Media. Ry works as a speech language pathologist at the following organizations: Rutger’s University, Prismatic Speech Services, and Robertwood Johnson Barnabas Health.
Speakers - Nonfinancial	Ry Pilchman (they/them) is licensed in NJ and NY to practice speech-language pathology. Additionally, they are a member of ASHA.
Course - Content	Ry Pilchman has no content disclosures.
Course - Financial Support & In Kind	This course is being sponsored by SLP Toolkit and Hey Wes.

ASHA

This course is offered for 0.1 ASHA CEUs, Introductory Level, Professional Area