The daffodils are out, the days will soon be getting longer, and we’re buzzing with excitement because we’re thrilled to announce Joelle Maslak as our first keynote speaker for Kiwi PyCon 2025 🎉
Joelle is a network engineer for Netflix, where she uses Python to configure and monitor a network that spans the globe. She started programming on an Apple II when she was 5 and has worked in many different IT roles over her 30-year-long career.
She holds dual degrees, one in Computer Science and the other in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, which help fuel her vision of a world where everyone is included. Outside of work and her research interests (she is involved in research that benefits the neurodivergent and the rainbow communities), she loves to tinker with toy operating systems and old computing technology
“A Neurodivergent Career–Making Work Fit Us”
Neurodivergent brains can excel at tech, but excelling in formal employment can be more difficult! Most jobs are designed for the mythical neurotypical brain, and many are a particularly poor fit even for well-qualified neurodivergent brains. Learn about strategies that might work for different kinds of neurodivergent brains to adapt these neurotypical-centric jobs to neurodivergent brains. Knowing what adaptations can actually help and how to get those adaptations is important! This talk will give some examples and strategies to shape a job to fit a neurodivergent brain better. Joelle will also encourage those with lead, partnership, or management responsibility to consider alternatives to the ways we’ve always done things, to allow more people to do amazing work in tech.
This talk will draw from 25 years of professional experience in both tech and neurodivergent communities. It will go beyond the simple answers given to neurodivergent folks in the workplace (“Wear noise-cancelling headphones!”) and instead talk about what a job that actually fits some neurodivergent brains might look like. How do we communicate/collaborate with coworkers? Get feedback? Use technology and scripting to assist us? I will mix tech solutions and non-tech solutions to the problems with neurotypical-centric employment. I hope to present a vision of neurodivergent employment futures.
Kiwi PyCon 2025 🐍
Where & When
📍 Shed 6, Wellington Waterfront
🛠 Workshops – Friday 21 November
🌟 Main Conference – Saturday 22 & Sunday 23 November
Key Dates 📅
📣 Call for Posters: Open until 15 October (AoE)
📣 Call for Sponsors: Open now
👀 Call for Volunteers: Soon
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