Neurodiversity Celebration Week, 18-24 March, raised awareness and understanding of autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, and other ‘alternative thinking’ styles. The campaign generated content across social media, including daily LinkedIn posts from Lauren Thatcher, AOC Compliance Auditor and Neurodiversity Champion at Draken Europe.
With a fleet of L-159 and Falcon 20 jets, Draken Europe delivers key support including training to UK and European militaries. It’s the European arm of Draken International, a US company operating A-4s and other jets on US military training programmes.
Draken Europe works under UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulations and part of Thatcher’s role is to ensure compliance with important regulations governing permits to fly ex-military aircraft. Checking for updates and ensuring operating manuals are up to date also falls under her remit. Thatcher spoke to RGN from Teesside International Airport, where she’d spent the week with a CAA auditor, and performing a company base audit.
The work is detailed and exacting, requiring a wide and expert knowledge of evolving regulations and operating procedures. It is ideally suited to Thatcher’s autistic brain. Autism is less often diagnosed in girls and although she says she was always ‘different’, she only properly recognized her neurodivergence in the past decade or so.
It is immediately obvious that she talks and thinks fast, partly though the masking technique common to autistic people and partly fueled by suspected ADHD. Describing herself as ‘neurospicy’, Thatcher said: “I think there might be some dyspraxia too. If someone throws a ball to me, I just panic!” She has learned to observe and laugh at herself while optimizing the positives of her unique spice mix.
“People tend to see labels like ‘autistic’ as a hinderance,” she continued. “They focus on the negative stereotypes. I want those labels to be the start of a conversation. They give people a direction, but the label is not me. I’m more than just my neurotype.”
Lauren Thatcher, AOC Compliance Auditor and Neurodiversity Champion at Draken Europe. Image: Paul Heasman
As Draken Europe’s Neurodiversity Champion, she explained: “We have an equality, diversity, and inclusion [EDI] committee. We’re learning how to grow that EDI commitment, while my role, working with one of the senior leadership team as sponsor, is to educate and open conversations across the company, aimed at encouraging acceptance.
“My sponsor knew nothing about neurodiversity. After I’d explained, he said he thought it was amazing, but didn’t understand why it should be an issue. He recognizes that neurodiversity brings strengths but also challenges, and people need just a little flexibility and support to cope.”
There is also acknowledgement that taking away the cause of an issue for a neurodivergent person might improve the working environment for everyone. Thatcher provided an example. “One of our sites has two large buildings, with open-plan offices. Nobody knew where anyone sat. I suggested we create a plan. For me it takes away the social anxiety of having to ask if someone can show me where ‘finance’ is, and for everyone else it just makes ‘finance’ easier to find.”
She continued: “Working for Draken has been fantastic; I’ve grown more in the past two years than in my entire career. Wanting to understand my neurodiversity, my manager asked: ‘What works for you?’ That’s a really important question. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that by 9pm I’m broken, I have nothing left to give. And there are days where I struggle to function. On those days he said, ‘Don’t worry, take the time you need.’ People started noticing my challenges, helping me accept who I am, and learn how to better use the abilities my neurodiversity gives me.
“Neurodivergent and neurotypical people don’t experience different things, it’s just that neurodivergence can amplify them to a point where it becomes difficult to function. I’ve found my ideal job at Draken Europe. It’s helped me find the balance between something I love doing and my self-awareness, which is a huge part of being neurodiverse.”
Related Articles:
- Op-Ed: Assessing the airport experience from an autistic point of view
- Tying up loose ends: Neurodiversity and aviation safety
- Breeze Airways makes the case for kindness as a business model
- Why infotainment-focused airline safety videos pose a safety concern
- Airlines, airports seek to support the autistic passenger experience
- Airlines and Autism Double-Checked design ASD inclusive PaxEx
Featured image credited to Paul Heasman
