Autek CIC

Autek is a social enterprise that provides work experience opportunities for disabled film makers and digital artists at the start of their careers.  This fulfils a need to help people recover from education experiences and prepare for the world of work, through providing work experiences that build on talent and interest.  Many of the 30+ people we have helped over the past 5 years have been neurodivergent.

The videos and digital artwork that we produce for customers focus on making places and services more accessible for disabled people.  There is a lot of focus on physical accessibility, and we extend this to accessible communication through our videos. 

Our videos aim to reduce anxiety and provide information in a format that help people prepare to visit or attend an appointment.  Our unique selling point in these videos lies in our lived experience which we build into our projects from concept, through scripting, filming and postproduction.

We quickly learnt that if you make a video accessible for autistic people, then it is accessible for everyone. The opposite is definitely not the case!

We have worked with NHS customers (Children’s services, GP surgeries, cancer screening, opticians and pharmacists to name a few), Special Schools, country parks, Leisure Centres and Community venues that provide activities for disabled people.

In addition to the video work, Autek directors use our lived experience and skills to support research.  Our aims are to ensure all research involves different neurodivergent viewpoints so that we are less likely to be excluded from changes to policy and practice that result from research, and to drive our own research agenda.

We are currently focusing on Autism and Diabetes and Autism communications around chronic pain and fatigue.

Autek are keen to collaborate with like-minded organisations and thought leaders to work together on making the world a more inclusive place for disabled people and continuing to challenge the medical model of disability.