A Welsh university has appointed its first honorary university lecturer with autism and learning disabilities.
Paul Taylor regularly gives presentations to students and assists with interviews and research papers.
The 35-year-old has an intellectual disability and started his university career by sharing some of his personal experiences with students.
Bangor University says his work provides a unique insight to prospective mental health and learning disability nurses.
It also says Mr Taylor is the first person with a learning disability to become part of the academic team at a UK university.
“I wanted to share my story about my personal life and my personal experiences with a learning disability and autism,” he said.
“I wanted students to understand what it’s like to live with an intellectual disability so they can improve the way they work with patients with a learning disability and increase their understanding of their feelings and needs.”
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Paul also volunteers with the British Heart Foundation business in Bangor and was part of the Wales football squad at the Special Olympics in Bath in 2013.
He started presenting to students in 2019, but both he and the university soon realized there was potential for him to work more closely with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
In December 2022 he was officially appointed honorary lecturer.
“When I teach, I talk about my hospital experience as a patient, my sporting experience, my mental health experience and one day I want to talk about my experience with Covid,” he said.
“In the past I have spoken in rooms with 70-80 students. I like speaking and I feel good speaking in front of these people because it makes me more confident.
“I really enjoy lecturing because I love meeting new people and I think it gives me an opportunity to help nurses understand better when working with patients in the hospital or in the community.”
dr Ruth Wyn Williams, an associate professor of health services at Bangor University, who works closely with Paul in preparing and delivering his lectures, says he is “a very important part of the team”.
“In addition to giving lectures to students, he will also attend conferences and help present scientific papers,” she said.
“He was also on interview panels for new students and helped with open houses.
“It’s been small steps since he started, but our job as a university is to keep finding more and more ways for him to bring something to the table.
“We can still do more to learn from him and change the way we work.”
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