Harriet Cannon
@harrietcannon.bsky.social
University Disability Practitioner and Manager, NADP Senior Accredited member, NADP Director, AAPHE founder. Accidental competence standards nerd. Pronouns: she/her. Views entirely my own.
Pinned
Harriet Cannon
@harrietcannon.bsky.social
· Oct 20
Maybe I should introduce myself? I'm a university disability practitioner, managing a disability team in a large Russell Group uni. I'm an autism specialist, and an inclusive assessment and competence standards nerd. I will rant frequently about ableism and disablism in HE.
This evening's run was....delightful (dog went on strike shortly after this)
November 7, 2025 at 6:09 PM
This evening's run was....delightful (dog went on strike shortly after this)
Reposted by Harriet Cannon
1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
November 7, 2025 at 1:50 AM
1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
As I'm currently in my own why-doesn't-the-NHS-do-something persistent low ferritin battle, this is all very familiar. Especially fun when mixed with hypothyroidism and endometriosis for a fatigue triple whammy 😩
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Tired all the time? There may be a simple reason for that
Levels of fatigue among women in Britain are soaring, and this isn’t the kind that can be cured by a nap. What lies behind the exhaustion epidemic?
www.theguardian.com
November 3, 2025 at 11:48 AM
As I'm currently in my own why-doesn't-the-NHS-do-something persistent low ferritin battle, this is all very familiar. Especially fun when mixed with hypothyroidism and endometriosis for a fatigue triple whammy 😩
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
@dannyrobins.bsky.social Saw this on an ad. Nearly had a heart attack 😨 #EltonsPhone
October 29, 2025 at 8:33 AM
@dannyrobins.bsky.social Saw this on an ad. Nearly had a heart attack 😨 #EltonsPhone
Nope. No no no. Autistic students do not 'face growing challenges on campus'. They do however experience existing, entrenched, systemic barriers created and perpetuated by structural inequities that are baked into pretty much every element of the student journey from pre-applicant to graduate...
Autistic students face growing challenges in higher education. Learn how universities can help them adjust to campus life, build supportive social connections and find calm with some four-legged support: https://ow.ly/UNGv50XjabA #Academia #HigherEd #AcademicSky #Autism #Neurodiversity
How to help autistic students adjust to life on campus
With autistic students’ drop-out rate spiking, here’s how to help them ease into their university career, allow for neurodiversity-friendly socialising and reduce their anxiety with a furry friend
ow.ly
October 29, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Nope. No no no. Autistic students do not 'face growing challenges on campus'. They do however experience existing, entrenched, systemic barriers created and perpetuated by structural inequities that are baked into pretty much every element of the student journey from pre-applicant to graduate...
This is desperately sad as it is identical to the experience I had giving birth to my first daughter. I also haemorrhaged, my daughter also had to be resuscitated (twice). The difference is that we were in hospital, with two full crash teams, and we both survived.
‘Gross failure’ led to deaths of mother and baby in Prestwich home birth
‘Gross failure’ led to deaths of mother and baby in Prestwich home birth
Jennifer Cahill and her daughter, Agnes Lily, died in birth described by coroner as ‘a Victorian-age nightmare’
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 10:31 AM
This is desperately sad as it is identical to the experience I had giving birth to my first daughter. I also haemorrhaged, my daughter also had to be resuscitated (twice). The difference is that we were in hospital, with two full crash teams, and we both survived.
Reposted by Harriet Cannon
"We learn early that “disabled” is a word that shuts doors. Employers avoid it, family members whisper it, clinicians rank it. So we start running from it, mistaking distance for dignity."
Excellent from @lovettejallow.bsky.social
Someone will always argue, but regardless: autism IS a disability.
Excellent from @lovettejallow.bsky.social
Someone will always argue, but regardless: autism IS a disability.
"When I began saying 'I’m autistic& disabled' something shifted. I stopped apologizing for my limits& started protecting my capacity. I stopped pretending my energy was endless& started recognizing it as finite, sacred& worth conserving." @lovettejallow.bsky.social:
open.substack.com/pub/lovettej...
open.substack.com/pub/lovettej...
If You’re Autistic, You Are Disabled
Why denying disability reinforces ableism and costs lives.Autism is disability, not disorder. This essay confronts internalised ableism, explains the social vs medical models, and reclaims disabled id...
open.substack.com
October 28, 2025 at 8:41 AM
"We learn early that “disabled” is a word that shuts doors. Employers avoid it, family members whisper it, clinicians rank it. So we start running from it, mistaking distance for dignity."
Excellent from @lovettejallow.bsky.social
Someone will always argue, but regardless: autism IS a disability.
Excellent from @lovettejallow.bsky.social
Someone will always argue, but regardless: autism IS a disability.
This is a great article, and a very useful explanation wonkhe.com/blogs/everyo...
Everyone cares until someone asks for a statute
With student suicides prompting renewed calls for accountability, Bob Abrahart uses a soil science model to map the legal, political and moral landscape of duty of care in higher education
wonkhe.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:35 AM
This is a great article, and a very useful explanation wonkhe.com/blogs/everyo...
Reposted by Harriet Cannon
Gosh, who'd have thunk it, being packed off to isolation repeatedly, usually for very minor infractions of totally bizarre rules, and often publicly shamed, damages children's mental health and perception of school, and disproportionately impacts disabled, especially neurodivergent, children
‘Publicly humiliated’: parents describe difficulty of children’s isolation at school
‘Publicly humiliated’: parents describe difficulty of children’s isolation at school
Parents say use of isolation room damages mental health and children’s learning
*
One in 12 secondary pupils put in isolation rooms at least once a week, study finds
Max was 11 and had just started his new secondary school when he was first put into isolation. He had asked to use the toilet between lessons, which was not ordinarily allowed, and was told to go quickly.
“He knew he wasn’t allowed to run, so he walked quickly,” his mother, Beth, told the Guardian. But teachers claimed he was running and Max’s secondary school career began with a week’s isolation. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
October 23, 2025 at 5:31 AM
Gosh, who'd have thunk it, being packed off to isolation repeatedly, usually for very minor infractions of totally bizarre rules, and often publicly shamed, damages children's mental health and perception of school, and disproportionately impacts disabled, especially neurodivergent, children
It was probably overly optimistic to think that the Post-16 Education & Skills White Paper would contain anything of use/interest/help to the half a million disabled students in HE, or indeed any mention of inclusive pedagogies as a way to tackle the inequities it mentions www.gov.uk/government/p...
Post-16 education and skills white paper
Post-16 education and skills reforms to develop a skilled workforce and break down barriers to opportunity.
www.gov.uk
October 22, 2025 at 10:48 AM
It was probably overly optimistic to think that the Post-16 Education & Skills White Paper would contain anything of use/interest/help to the half a million disabled students in HE, or indeed any mention of inclusive pedagogies as a way to tackle the inequities it mentions www.gov.uk/government/p...
Reposted by Harriet Cannon
Wenn Lawson, one of the originators of the theory, writes about Monotropism for Frontiers in Psychiatry.
"Uncovering how monotropism explains autism and Autistic experience takes the reader into the very heart of Autistic experience in ways not previously shown."
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
"Uncovering how monotropism explains autism and Autistic experience takes the reader into the very heart of Autistic experience in ways not previously shown."
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
Frontiers | Research by autistic researchers: an “insider’s view” into autism. The autistic way of being
This paper introduces us to an increasingly popular understanding of autism, but as understood and experienced by Autistic people: the descriptive theory of ...
www.frontiersin.org
October 22, 2025 at 6:29 AM
Wenn Lawson, one of the originators of the theory, writes about Monotropism for Frontiers in Psychiatry.
"Uncovering how monotropism explains autism and Autistic experience takes the reader into the very heart of Autistic experience in ways not previously shown."
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
"Uncovering how monotropism explains autism and Autistic experience takes the reader into the very heart of Autistic experience in ways not previously shown."
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
I've been doing some work with UCAS over recent years, aimed at improving the advice given to disabled students and their applicants. Some of this has made its way into the brand new Supporter Toolkits www.ucas.com/advisers/hel.... Essential reading for #SENCOs #ALNCOs, parents and supporters
Supporters' toolkits for advising students with individual needs | UCAS
If you're unfamiliar with the UCAS application but helping someone apply to university or college, our step-by-step guides will help.
www.ucas.com
October 16, 2025 at 2:48 PM
I've been doing some work with UCAS over recent years, aimed at improving the advice given to disabled students and their applicants. Some of this has made its way into the brand new Supporter Toolkits www.ucas.com/advisers/hel.... Essential reading for #SENCOs #ALNCOs, parents and supporters
Some of the communications we get are breathtakingly rude, especially (but not only) from parents. And it's getting worse as more parents feel more entitled to demand ever greater levels of service and expectation that simply aren't realistic and don't recognise the very stressed humans involved
In my current professional role I work with a lot of non-students. This includes parents, alumni, community members, prospective students. I'm amazed at how they think they can speak to me, a current email includes: "send a filled out form to me immediately".
Immediately, huh?
Immediately, huh?
October 16, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Some of the communications we get are breathtakingly rude, especially (but not only) from parents. And it's getting worse as more parents feel more entitled to demand ever greater levels of service and expectation that simply aren't realistic and don't recognise the very stressed humans involved
Yesterday, the OfS published an Insight briefing into the experiences of disabled students in #UKHE. It tells us all the same issues that every report about disabled students tells us, year after year. What we need is enforcement, not another checklist of 'thinking points' wonkhe.com/blogs/why-is...
Why is regulation on disabled students so weak?
As new insight from OfS reveals improving outcomes and worsening experience for disabled students, Jim Dickinson asks whether higher education regulation is fundamentally flawed in its design and focu...
wonkhe.com
October 15, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Yesterday, the OfS published an Insight briefing into the experiences of disabled students in #UKHE. It tells us all the same issues that every report about disabled students tells us, year after year. What we need is enforcement, not another checklist of 'thinking points' wonkhe.com/blogs/why-is...
Reposted by Harriet Cannon
We are so pleased to announce next month's #CRAEwebinar.
Jada Brown will be speaking on 'Understanding the embodied experiences of Black, autistic university students in the UK'
Do join us: Thur 6th Nov 4pm
Jada Brown will be speaking on 'Understanding the embodied experiences of Black, autistic university students in the UK'
Do join us: Thur 6th Nov 4pm
Understanding the embodiment of UK Black, autistic university students
Jada Brown will consider what it might be like to navigate university as an autistic person who is also marginalised by their Blackness.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
October 14, 2025 at 11:32 AM
We are so pleased to announce next month's #CRAEwebinar.
Jada Brown will be speaking on 'Understanding the embodied experiences of Black, autistic university students in the UK'
Do join us: Thur 6th Nov 4pm
Jada Brown will be speaking on 'Understanding the embodied experiences of Black, autistic university students in the UK'
Do join us: Thur 6th Nov 4pm
Reposted by Harriet Cannon
I'm giving away this signed 1st edition h/b of my new novel (it has a tiny jacket rip which means I wouldn't sell it) to one person who reposts this.
You might like it if you like:
Folkloric creatures
Old records
Intricate psychedelic stories
The idea of circular time
All shares much-appreciated.
You might like it if you like:
Folkloric creatures
Old records
Intricate psychedelic stories
The idea of circular time
All shares much-appreciated.
October 8, 2025 at 10:11 AM
I'm giving away this signed 1st edition h/b of my new novel (it has a tiny jacket rip which means I wouldn't sell it) to one person who reposts this.
You might like it if you like:
Folkloric creatures
Old records
Intricate psychedelic stories
The idea of circular time
All shares much-appreciated.
You might like it if you like:
Folkloric creatures
Old records
Intricate psychedelic stories
The idea of circular time
All shares much-appreciated.
Reposted by Harriet Cannon
"An English degree is a rip off" said by the people who are currently ripping everyone off. They don't want you to be literate, to understand the context, the references or the rhetoric they are using to scam you.
A rip off for THEM. If you can read, write and parse meaning, you're harder to fool.
A rip off for THEM. If you can read, write and parse meaning, you're harder to fool.
October 8, 2025 at 10:43 AM
"An English degree is a rip off" said by the people who are currently ripping everyone off. They don't want you to be literate, to understand the context, the references or the rhetoric they are using to scam you.
A rip off for THEM. If you can read, write and parse meaning, you're harder to fool.
A rip off for THEM. If you can read, write and parse meaning, you're harder to fool.
English graduate here, busily using the skills I learnt every single day in a job that requires careful, flexible communication, the ability to argue effectively, think critically, write convincingly in a variety of styles, parse text quickly and 'lay the track' when talking. And still love reading!
This makes me so angry. These people view all life as training for lifelong servitude/work. There's no room for interest, enjoyment, and culture in their bleak vision of education. At least she'll never be in power to see it through. Though Reform are probably worse.
October 8, 2025 at 8:43 AM
English graduate here, busily using the skills I learnt every single day in a job that requires careful, flexible communication, the ability to argue effectively, think critically, write convincingly in a variety of styles, parse text quickly and 'lay the track' when talking. And still love reading!
I do find it curious that the NHS will happily give me a vaccine for one highly contagious respiratory virus (weedy asthmatic) but not for the other. Last year I qualified for a Covid vaccination due to caring responsibilities, but that's gone this year too.
This. People eligible for the flu vaccine are not eligible for the updated COVID booster. That makes zero sense
The MILLIONS of people who were denied vaccines are suddenly realising.
@rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social this was a terrible idea.
Not only will the NHS struggle this autumn / winter, but people will suffer and die unnecessarily.
It isn't too late for a U-turn!
@rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social this was a terrible idea.
Not only will the NHS struggle this autumn / winter, but people will suffer and die unnecessarily.
It isn't too late for a U-turn!
October 6, 2025 at 7:02 AM
I do find it curious that the NHS will happily give me a vaccine for one highly contagious respiratory virus (weedy asthmatic) but not for the other. Last year I qualified for a Covid vaccination due to caring responsibilities, but that's gone this year too.
Reposted by Harriet Cannon
"compassion fatigue," much like "emotional labor" is real, but has been co-opted. it was coined to refer to the feeling that, say, ppl in medical fields get when they're forced to work in an unfair system so they don't have the means to alleviate the suffering of others despite having the knowledge-
October 5, 2025 at 8:11 PM
"compassion fatigue," much like "emotional labor" is real, but has been co-opted. it was coined to refer to the feeling that, say, ppl in medical fields get when they're forced to work in an unfair system so they don't have the means to alleviate the suffering of others despite having the knowledge-
Are there some sort of bonus points available for running to your flu jab appointment (and back) through a massive storm?
October 4, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Are there some sort of bonus points available for running to your flu jab appointment (and back) through a massive storm?
Reposted by Harriet Cannon
The mystery of medical diagnosis!
October 3, 2025 at 6:25 PM
The mystery of medical diagnosis!
Our dog goes out once a week with our dog walker who loads him and his pals in a van and takes them to the woods and the stream for a couple of hours. She is, without a doubt, his absolute most favourite person in the world 😆
$200k to hang out with dogs. amazing
IG gabriel.desanti, barkandburn
IG gabriel.desanti, barkandburn
October 4, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Our dog goes out once a week with our dog walker who loads him and his pals in a van and takes them to the woods and the stream for a couple of hours. She is, without a doubt, his absolute most favourite person in the world 😆
My recent emojis in Teams tell a story, I feel...Especially the top line
October 3, 2025 at 1:35 PM
My recent emojis in Teams tell a story, I feel...Especially the top line