Activities

My activities outside academia almost always happen because someone has invited me, sometimes because of research expertise, sometimes because of lived experience, sometimes because I have spent years thinking about a particular problem, or sometimes because somebody suspects I might see something they have missed.

Some of these activities operate at national or professional level; others are much smaller. I am interested in both. A policy document can matter, but so can noticing that a supposedly quiet space is not quiet, helping a researcher make participant information more accessible, or turning a difficult patient experience into useful feedback.

Much of the work involves advising people or projects. There has been so much of this activity that it is hard to summarise, but some recent examples include: advising the ERC-funded Digital Scores project on the technological transformation of musical notation; supporting Tim Baker's Arts Council-funded development work on vibroacoustic music, hearing difference and a 'lexicon of affect'; and helping doctoral researcher Shelby Navone on accessible participant materials for VR research, which she revised in response to my feedback.

The list that follows gives a sense of the range and variety of these activities.

  • Aural Diversity: I founded the Aural Diversity Network, which now has more than 300 members and brings lived experience, research, creative practice and professional practice together around the many different ways in which people hear. Its work has travelled well beyond the original AHRC-funded network: the Welsh Government's Noise and Soundscape Plan 2023–2028 includes Aural Diversity; Arup developed an Aural Diversity Toolkit for architects, designers and engineers in collaboration with the network; and the concept has been taken up in professional acoustics, conferences and later research infrastructure. In 2026 I was also a Noise Action Week spokesperson for the Institute of Environmental Sciences and advised on a Key Stage 3 lesson pack using Aural Diversity ideas.

See: Aural Diversity · Impact · Arup Aural Diversity Toolkit · Welsh Government consultation evidence · Noise Action Week · Aural Diversity: KS3 Lesson Pack

  • NHS, autism and healthcare: I serve as an Expert by Experience on the Leicestershire and Rutland Autism Partnership Board and contribute to implementation of the Adult Autism and Neurodiversity Delivery Plan. Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust's Autism Space republishes writing from my Autistic Professor blog, including pieces on awaydays, interviews and the continuing usefulness of the autism spectrum. I have also translated my own patient experience into detailed accessibility feedback: at Kettering Hospital, for example, feedback was escalated to senior staff in Urology and Radiology for patient-care improvement.

See: NHS Autism Space: Autistic Professor · NHS: Awaydays and autistic people · NHS: Interviews and autism · NHS: The autism spectrum has not collapsed

  • Balance disorders: I have turned my own experience of Ménière's disease and balance disorder into talks, resources and peer support. Life on the Level describes me as a past guest speaker and regular contributor and hosts the Balance Disorder Spectrum developed with Professor Peter Rea. In 2019 the organisation gave me a 'Dizzie' award for significant contribution to balance-condition sufferers. In 2023 I contributed lived experience, specialist knowledge and music to the BBC World Service CrowdScience programme 'Why do we experience vertigo?'; Life on the Level subsequently reported contacts from people overseas who had found the group through the broadcast.

See: Balance Disorder Spectrum · Life on the Level: team members · BBC CrowdScience: Why do we experience vertigo?

  • Quiet and sensory spaces: I have developed practical thinking around quiet rooms, sensory rooms and 'recombobulation' spaces, and used it in real environments. After INTER-NOISE 2022 I gave the Scottish Event Campus detailed feedback on visual walkthroughs, quiet space, hand dryers, zoning, signage and Sunflower Lanyard awareness; its Customer Experience Coordinator said the feedback would help introduce visual aids and a quiet room. I have also contributed to professional discussions with acousticians and organisations including the Institute of Acoustics and Association of Noise Consultants. My 2025 written evidence to Parliament's Autism Act inquiry included practical recommendations for quiet and decompression space.

See: Parliament: written evidence to Autism Act inquiry · Hearing the Café

  • Hearing and audiology: I have worked with hearing professionals and hearing-technology organisations for many years, including GN ReSound, and have spoken about Aural Diversity to professional and research audiences. Examples include the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists, the Annual Convention of Hearing Aid Acousticians, the International Otolaryngology Conference and the 2024 Virtual Conference on Computational Audiology, where I gave a featured talk introducing Aural Diversity. I have also discussed invisible disability and hearing for Signia's podcast and on public radio.

See: Virtual Conference on Computational Audiology 2024 programme · Signia Brilliant Talks

  • All-In Leicester and public accessibility: Through All-In Leicester I have contributed lived-experience accessibility work across the city's cultural and public realm. Examples include helping develop an Arts Council England commissioned research project with ArtReach; taking part in City Streets access audits; contributing specialist advice on noise, sensory accessibility and neurodivergent experience to the Leicester Railway Station redevelopment consultation; reviewing accessibility at Curve Theatre; and contributing to accessibility work around the Journeys Festival and Old Town Festival.

See: All-In Leicester

  • Cultural venues: I have advised cultural and visitor organisations directly about disability and sensory accessibility. At Phoenix in Leicester I have contributed at different stages, including its Access Advisory Group. At Attenborough Arts Centre I served on the Advisory Board and contributed to thinking about an autism-friendlier café environment. At Winchester Science Centre, at Peter Rogers's request, I visited in 2024 and produced a detailed evaluation of the visitor experience from autistic and aural-diversity perspectives. In August 2026 I contributed to Britten Pears Arts' Think Tank on Neurodiversity and Music at Snape Maltings.

See: Phoenix · Attenborough Arts · Britten Pears Arts: Think Tanks

  • Museums: I have worked with museum researchers and practitioners on what genuinely multisensory access might mean. In 2024 I was invited to a sequence of prototype workshops at the Wellcome Collection for The Sensational Museum, a project developing 'trans-sensory' museum practice in which no single sense is necessary or sufficient. This followed the 2023 Sound Experts Workshop and work on Aural Diversity in Museums, and has continued through advice to projects such as Aural Diverse Museum / Hearing in Motion and Soundways.

See: The Sensational Museum

  • Frog Fizzles: I turned a lifelong interest in frogs into Frog Fizzles: 147 miniature 'living scores' derived from the characteristics of individual frog species. Each frog can be used as a score by instrumentalists, singers and other performers, with accessible performer instructions and an emphasis on many possible ways of making and experiencing music.

See: Frog Fizzles