The country's first-ever Autism Research Centre launched in Christchurch yesterday, it aims to turn research towards the needs of autistic people. The centre will be hosted the University of Canterbury but will have networks around the country.
Its vision is to improve the wellbeing of autistic people with an alignment with the neurodiversity framework, which treats autism as natural human variation rather than a disorder to be fixed. It was launched at a symposium yesterday and will be led by inaugural director Professor Laurie McLay. The keynote was delivered by Professor David Trembath, head of autism research at CliniKids in Australia. David speaks to Kathryn about what the new centre here could achieve.
The University of Canterbury will be where the Autism Research Centre will be based. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
