#ukseds

Another post about the Reinventing Space Careers Conference!

About 20 of my classmates and I were very lucky to participate to the Reinventing Space Careers conference yesterday. Hearing about the experiences of professionals was an amazing opportunity to learn about the field.

Pictured above, Christina Giannopapa, is the Head of the Political Affairs Office in the Cabinet of the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Paris. She has an impressive number of other roles in the space industry, such as being a Resident Fellow at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna.

Next month I’m off to the Diversity In Space Careers (DISC) conference in London. It has been too long since my last space conference so I’m looking forward to it, and to catching up with some of my friends—even if I can’t actively participate in the space industry much right now.

I’m glad to see the space industry working to promote diversity, but it comes on the heels of a report by AGCAS, entitled “What Happens Next? – A Report on the First Destinations of Disabled Graduates”, looking at the career outcomes of graduates with disabilities. This report, compiled annually, highlights the disadvantages faced by disabled graduates, but a key thread in this year’s report is the particular disadvantage faced by autistic graduates: we are least likely to be in full time employment, least likely to be in permanent employment, and most likely to be unemployed, of any of the disability groups studied.

While these results are frustrating it’s good to see attention being paid to them (even if it just confirms what we already know). I’ve been grappling with these obstacles myself for too long now, and it’s time for change.