Neurodivergence is common, but an understanding of what it means and the resources available for neurodivergent people is scarce. That’s why, when a group of students needed to pick their final project for their communications class, they chose to host an ADHD & Autism Film Festival.
Second-year journalism student Nya Harrington said her group, which also includes Abby Neuman, Clayton Piergrossi and Oscar Holm, wanted to make a meaningful dent in the issue.
“We wanted to make sure that women and college students and people — everyone knew about the resources that we have on campus,” Harrington said. “And we wanted to advocate for more resources and more funding, because there’s also a lack of that and long wait lists for those services.”
Harrington was diagnosed with ADHD her senior year of high school. She said that if she hadn’t looked into getting a diagnosis until college, it would have been hard for her to get accommodations because the resources are backlogged.
Groupmate Neuman, a third-year psychology student, also has exposure to the topic. Through her psychology classes and personal experience with neurodivergence, she said she is aware of the public’s lack of knowledge about neurodiversity.
When her group talked to their class last week, Neuman said most of the class had no idea about autism or ADHD. This reinforced her feelings about the necessity of further education.
After doing some research, Harrington said the group decided they wanted to cover ADHD and autism specifically because they were equally passionate about both. Neuman said they wanted to show two films for each.
The films being shown at the festival are “Loop,” a short film by Disney, “ADHD: The Faces Behind the Disorder,” a local documentary by former UW-Stout film student Parker Cmeyla and “Hyperactive,” a creative short on ADHD,” in addition to a TED Talk about what it’s really like to have autism.
Collaborators for the event were the Services for Students with Disabilities Office (SSD), the Neurodiversity Alliance, the Psychology Club and the Neuroscience Club. The speakers at the event will be host Lexi Sigmond, Anna Mallet Emma Sadowski from the SSD Office, Lily Eisele and Asher Garvin from the Neurodiversity Alliance, and filmmaker Parker Cmeyla.
A goal of the event is for attendees to gain an understanding of neurodivergent people, according to Neuman.
“You know, we exist. We aren’t incapable of being in society, and there’s just like so many of us and such a wide variety of us,” Neuman said. “And I just hope that people have a more open mind about people who just think a little differently than others.”
Harrington said she hopes people will have more empathy toward and a more positive view of neurodivergence and realize the superpowers that come along with it. With this event, the group is showing and highlighting those aspects
“The ‘Loop’ film shows a really positive thing where the girl is running her hands through the grass,” Harrington said. “And then the boy starts to do that and she’s being more present and he is able to learn from her.”
Harrington hopes people walk away understanding what work needs to be done to provide more resources for students and community members. She said that because hospitals don’t make money off behavioral health, they don’t have a lot of services.
“I hope that people feel heard,” Harrington said. “Like people, if they have ADHD or autism, they watch and they listen and … they leave the event feeling more heard.”
The ADHD & Autism Film Festival will take place at 6:30 p.m. on May 8 in Woodland Theater in the Davies Student Center.
Price can be reached at [email protected].
