Meet Lauren Gilbert @neurodiversitywithlozza

Lauren Gilbert tells KtoA Magazine about their experiences of higher education, creating change for the next generation of students with disabilities, and finding a new career path through their advocacy work

I’m Lauren Gilbert (they/them) and I’m a 21-year-old disabled student, content creator and public speaker.

Most of the work I do is around accessing education as a disabled person and making changes to improve the experience for future students. School can be brutal for anyone, but when you grow up not knowing you’re disabled or neurodivergent, it makes the experience much harder. Staff at secondary school were often not equipped to support those who had different needs, and it was very rare that they stepped in to prevent bullying or educate students on difference. I was frequently teased and bullied by those who thought I was ‘too odd’ or ‘weird’ and found it incredibly hard to make friends.

The two friends that I did have in school were both also autistic, and were the only people I felt truly comfortable around. Being friends with them really helped me get through school, and it gave me a small sense of community. This sense of community is what has saved me over the past couple of years since I decided to interact with other disabled people online, and I hope that I can give back to the community through my advocacy work both online and in-person.

I’m Disability Officer at Newcastle University Students’ Union, which is a voluntary role that I’ve undertaken alongside the final year of my Astrophysics degree. It’s essentially my job to represent the interests of disabled students on campus, and ensure their voices are heard by running campaigns and making changes wherever I can.

So far I've managed lots in my role! But some highlights include: assisting with organising events for both staff and students for Disability History Month; managing to secure funding for the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Scheme to be implemented on campus; passing a motion through Council which will hopefully in the future make it mandatory for teaching staff to record teaching sessions and upload them online so that disabled and chronically ill students such as myself can learn remotely.

Disabled is not a bad word, and I wish I knew sooner that it was a word for me.

I really enjoy my role as Disability Officer, but my experiences being disabled at university along with my health getting worse have often made me feel very unwelcome here. For some context, I’m Autistic with ADHD, mental illnesses and more recently long Covid, for which I use a walking stick. I was diagnosed autistic at the beginning of my second year of university (then ADHD later on). I was trying to be independent, as was expected of me as both an adult and a student, but I found it too overwhelming and needed some additional help that I’d missed out on for years.

At this point it also became apparent that there was a very large disconnect between the support services at university and academic teaching staff. The support offered by Student Health and Wellbeing was great, but not any use if academic staff weren’t educated in disability and refused to implement it. This meant that I very quickly had to learn how to advocate for myself and communicate my needs to others. Otherwise, if I didn’t fight for my right to stay in education, then others weren’t going to do it for me. I was also becoming more disabled by my long Covid symptoms which have now progressed to the point where I study completely remotely and rarely leave the house.

I honestly think if I wasn’t in my final year I would’ve dropped out to protect my physical and mental health. I am however trying my best to make it to graduation, and to continue making changes as Disability Officer so that future disabled students hopefully have less of a negative experience than I have.

I began working online in November 2021, around the time of my autism diagnosis. I go by ‘Neurodiversity With Lozza’. I never intended it to go anywhere, but this now may be a viable career path for me as a disabled person. Since starting out, I’ve been invited to events as a guest speaker to talk about my experiences, appeared on podcasts and written articles about accessibility in higher education. I’ve found it extremely hard coming to terms with the fact that I’m too disabled to pursue a career in physics like I always planned as a teenager, but now I have a different path and it’s one I really enjoy and have a passion for. I was also extremely honoured to win ‘Influencer of the Year’ at the 2022 Sense Awards which I still can’t believe and am very grateful for. I usually don’t consider myself an ‘Influencer’ in the typical sense, but I like to think that the work I’m doing by talking about my experiences is ‘influencing’ change and attitudes somehow.

Doing all of this work and sharing my personal experiences does mean that I’m very open about and also proud of being disabled. However, it hasn’t always been this way due to internalising a lot of the attitudes that the general population has around disability. I first suspected I might be autistic when I was around 11 or 12 after discussing with my autistic friends, but at the time I didn’t have the knowledge to describe myself as autistic, I only had the words ‘weird’, ‘anxious’ or ‘difficult’ and so was left feeling ashamed of who I was. When I started interacting with other disabled people online and after I got my autism diagnosis, I felt pride in who I was as I was finally opened up to all these ways to describe myself that weren’t negative. Disabled is not a bad word, and I wish I knew sooner that it was a word for me.