Speaker

Ashlea McKay

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Ashlea McKay is a UX researcher, designer, writer, keynote speaker and Diversity & Inclusion leader with a background in industrial design. She's also Autistic and didn't find out until she was nearly 30. She has more than 6 years of experience spanning both the public and private sectors and is an accomplished UX thought leader and international conference speaker. Ashlea co-founded UX Advice column UX Agony Aunt with Optimal Workshop and has a passion for mentoring and helping new UXers find their feet. In her spare time she is both the National Lead and the Canberra Lead for her workplace’s Ability Network: an internal Diversity & Inclusion volunteer network championing ability of all kinds at work and beyond. She loves LEGO, collects shoes and was colouring in long before it was cool. She lives in Canberra, Australia and is a cat lady to one very lucky black cat named Wednesday.
Melbourne, Australia September 23, 2017
The difference of a diagnosis: the before and after impact of marginalisation on my UX career
bullying, ableism, depression and suicide

I’m a user experience (UX) designer, researcher and writer. I’m also Autistic and I didn’t find out until I was nearly 30. Getting that diagnosis more than 5 years into my career, had an enormous impact on it - for better and for worse. Through my experiences, I’ve found that marginalisation and ableism in my career live on both sides of the diagnosis fence but in very different ways. From pre-diagnosis experiences of bullying and brilliant design work to post-diagnosis tales of ableist comments and holding a National level Diversity & Inclusion internal volunteer position at at work, I would like to share my story with you.