6 February 2026,
14:00–15:30 CET
The European Council of Autistic People (EUCAP) presents an online webinar organised as part of the AIRA project.
The webinar examines how artificial intelligence affects working life for autistic people, with a focus on rights, participation, and inclusion.
Read more about Aira -project here
AI systems are increasingly used in recruitment, workplace communication, management tools, and assistive technologies. These systems shape access to work, decision-making, and support structures. For autistic people, these developments involve both potential benefits and significant risks.
This webinar brings together autistic expertise, research-based knowledge, and policy perspectives to examine how AI is currently used in working life and how it should be developed in ways that respect rights and participation.
The webinar builds on key outputs of the AIRA project, including the literature overview, survey findings, toolkit, and policy recommendations
The theme
The webinar focuses on AI in working life from autistic and rights-based perspectives.
It addresses how AI systems influence job seeking, workplace participation, communication, and autonomy.
Key topics include
- AI in recruitment and automated decision-making
- Workplace communication and management tools
- Consent, data protection, and surveillance risks
- Neuro-inclusive AI design
- Autistic participation in AI development and governance
The discussion follows the principle nothing about us without us and centres autistic perspectives alongside research and policy analysis.
Who is it for?
This webinar is intended for
Autistic people
Disability and autism professionals
Researchers and students
Policy actors and decision-makers
Family members and allies of autistic people
Participants from any part of the world are welcome.
Speakers and topics
Marjo Virnes
PhD, EMBA,
Chief Development Officer, Autism Foundation Finland
Topic
Access to work and participation in working life for persons with disabilities. A critical research review on AI and neurodivergent persons.
About the speaker
Marjo Virnes is Chief Development Officer at the Autism Foundation Finland and has over twenty years of experience at the intersection of technology, learning, and organisational development. She has led extensive research, development, and innovation projects across service organisations and academic contexts.
Her work focuses on user-centred technologies, accessibility, inclusion, and the practical impact of digital systems on people’s everyday lives. She holds a PhD in Computer Science and has published widely on human–technology interaction and learning environments.
Marjo presents in collaboration with Maija Hirvonen as part of the joint work between the Autism Foundation Finland and the NewWorkTech project.
Maija Hirvonen,
Professor, Tampere University
Topic
Access to work and participation in working life for persons with disabilities. A critical research review on AI and neurodivergent persons.
About the speaker
Maija Hirvonen is Professor of German language, culture, and translation at Tampere University, Finland. Her research spans linguistics, translation studies, accessibility, and multimodal communication, with a strong focus on human and machine practices in working life.
She coordinates the Horizon Europe project NewWorkTech, which examines how technologies shape participation and abilities in employment contexts. At Tampere University, she leads the HuMuLaDisCo research group (Human and Machine in Language, Multimodality, Multilingual Communication and Distributed Cognition) and co-leads the Tampere Accessibility Unit. Nationally, she serves as director of Langnet, the Finnish network of doctoral programmes in language studies.
Dr. Naba Rizvi
PhD
Topic
How the creators of human-like AI agents define and implement humanness and inadvertently marginalise autistic people.
About the speaker
Dr. Naba Rizvi is an award-winning AI researcher and a pioneer of neuro-inclusive AI. Her work challenges narrow benchmarks of intelligence that prioritise mimicking humanness and argues for broader, more inclusive approaches to evaluating AI systems.
She has worked with major technology companies and is committed to making scientific research accessible to wider audiences. Through public science communication, she highlights how design choices in AI systems can exclude autistic people and other marginalised groups.
Lovette Jallow
Award-Winning Author and Inclusion Strategist
Topic
Consent, Data Boundaries, and Surveillance Creep in Assistive AI.
Her work focuses on how disability, racialisation, and gender shape the design and consequences of digital tools. She brings research-informed and lived-experience perspectives to support ethical, rights-based, and equitable practices in high-performance workplaces.
About the speaker
Lovette Jallow is an award-winning speaker, strategist, and author whose work examines how AI systems, diagnostic practices, and organisational structures reproduce inequality. She has over a decade of experience working with public institutions, legal organisations, and NGOs across Europe.
David Gollasch
M.Sc. Research Associate and Research Project Leader Human-Computer Interaction Expert
Topic
Assistive Technology Design for Autistic Employees.
About the speaker
David Gollasch is a Research Associate and Project Leader at the Chair of Human-Computer Interaction at TU Dresden University of Technology. He leads research on assistive technologies aimed at supporting the professional inclusion of autistic people. He is the project lead of the AutARK research project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. His work focuses on human-centred design, accessibility, diversity sensitivity, and inclusive workplace technologies.
