Recruitment was never designed with autistic people in mind. This first Touchstone opens a conversation at the heart of the 2026 program: how does hiring actually work as a system — and who does it consistently filter out?

There's the job you were hired to do. And then there's everything else — navigating unwritten rules, managing sensory load, translating communication styles, performing neurotypicality. This Touchstone names that hidden effort explicitly.

A community conversation about the supports, structures and conditions that help people work, study, volunteer or participate better. Many supports called 'adjustments' are examples of good work design: clear expectations, reduced friction, protected focus.

Emotional intelligence gets talked about a lot at work, but rarely in specifics. Tonight we want the specifics — what's genuinely helped people communicate or feel understood, and what's made it harder.

A forward-looking community conversation about what work could look like if designed from first principles around contribution, accessibility, sustainability and support. The community's own vision for systemic redesign.

A CV can only tell part of the story. For many autistic people, it tells very little of it. This Touchstone asks the community to name the gap between what they can actually do and how they've been assessed on paper.

Nobody tells you how much of finding work isn't actually about the job. This Touchstone pools the community's collective wisdom — the things that tripped people up that no one warned them about.

Awareness means people know autism exists. Inclusion means people are invited in. Value means contribution is trusted, respected and allowed to shape decisions. This Touchstone captures what genuine value feels like in the community's own words.

Job hunting gets talked about mostly in terms of what's broken. Tonight we also want to hear what's actually worked — a process, a moment, a piece of advice — alongside what made things harder.