Ben: I live in Abingdon in the wonderful county of Oxfordshire. And I, well I’m at school – I'm in sixth form at the moment.

Alex: Meet Ben.

Ben: My full name is Benjamin Keefe Foulsham if we want to have the official name, but actually just Ben Foulsham will be fine.

Alex: Ben is 17 years old. He’s about to take his A-levels. He’s excited about going to university. His big sister Ruth is helping him prepare.

Ben: She's been a great supporter of me. And for years, she was just someone who would support me and who would help me and a person I could talk to easily. But now as we’ve got older, she's almost like another friend to me.

Alex: Ruth has given Ben lots of advice to help him adjust to university life. Advice like…

Ben: Don't be judgmental of other people's actions and just care about yourself, and look after yourself first and foremost.

Alex: Ben has prosopagnosia.

Ben: commonly known as face blindness, it means that I cannot recognise the faces of people and have to recognise them through their voice or their hairstyle or by understanding the context where people will be at a certain time.

Alex: He also lives with autism.

Ben: The best way for me to describe it is it means I think differently, and my brain is wired completely differently to anyone else.It's a different way of living, a different way of seeing the world. And the reason why it's a disability is because the world is not built for autistic people. It's built for non autistic people.

Alex: Ben has a tendency to interpret what people are saying very literally. Sometimes he’ll have to check whether they are joking or being sarcastic.

Ben: Back when I was three, we were a department store something like that.

Alex: Ben’s mum said she was going to “call the lift”.

Ben: A classic sort of just turn of phrase that people would use. And then I ended up just shouting out “lift”, because I thought, going to call lift, that means you have to call lift.

Alex: Ben is really good at staying organised.

Ben: I have an exceptionally good memory.

Alex: And he aced his mock history exam without doing any revision.

Ben: My brain works almost entirely on logic, I can see things pieced together fairly easily and think through things and analyse things very well as long as they are logical.

Alex: It will probably come as a surprise that there was a time when Ben’s parents thought their bright, ambitious son … wouldn’t even finish primary school.

When Ben was little, he would often have what’s called a meltdown. It’s an intense emotional and physical response that autistic people have to overwhelming situations. They can temporarily lose control.

Ben: And those meltdowns would sometimes just be me lying on the floor and make a lot of noise. But a lot of time they involve lashing out and hurting people. And the thing I want to make very clear is that when I had a meltdown, it would not be me having behavioural issues or anything, it was me not knowing how to express my emotions, and end up expressing them through sort of physical means rather than verbally. And I didn't… I didn't understand.

Alex: The teachers at his primary school didn’t understand either. They thought Ben had behavioural issues – that he was acting out. They did the unthinkable.

Ben: They were so unhappy with me after I had a meltdown that they would put me in a completely bank room, it's a room that was white walls, I think there's a whiteboard at the front, maybe a table, but not much on the walls. They would then shut the door, they would then lean against the door and hold it shut. So I couldn't get out.

Alex: This happened not once, not twice….but many times. Ben would have a meltdown, and the teachers would lock him inside a small, bare classroom. Sometimes for 20 minutes, sometimes half an hour – completely alone. Almost prison-like in solitary confinement.

Ben: Coz they thought that that calmed me down but actually all it did was make me more stressed, more anxious. And one time I was so I felt so trapped, I was petrified is the best word for it. I didn't feel like I could get out of it. I felt I didn't understand what they were doing this to me. So I one time I tried to climb out the window. And they were surprised I tried to do that, that but I was I was just scared. And I didn’t want to be trapped in this room.

Alex: Sometimes Ben’s anger would override his fear.

Ben: I definitely was angry, I was very very angry and they put me in this room to try and make me calm down, but all it did was increase my anger.

Alex: Ben would shout and scream; sometimes he would throw chairs across the room.

Ben: I did not know how to manage my emotions. And that was what I’d do… I would… it it was a traumatic experience

Alex: One particularly traumatic time, Ben bit a teaching assistant during a meltdown.

Ben: While they were restraining me, the TA said to me Ben, don't bite other people if you need to buy something then by yourself and in that sense we're effectively telling me that self harming was better than having a meltdown and that stuck with me and that affected me [for] years afterwards where I would still sometimes bite myself if I was angry with myself and I was inflicting the pain from them onto myself.

Alex: When the school staff had decided that Ben had enough of being locked in this bare room….

Ben: They would then maybe after a while come in and tell me off. And they this thing they always did whenever I had a meltdown, I’d always be told off as it's my fault– nothing nothing of a ‘What should we do next time to cope with it’, it was always being told off.

Alex: It’s important to say at this point – – the teachers knew that Ben had autism!!

Ben: I'd been diagnosed back when I was four, they knew that I was autistic, but and they probably if they would have asked us someone who's autistic, they probably would know that was experiencing was just an off work of having autism in something that you just need to learn strategies to cope with. But they thought it was behavioural issues and that I effectively needed to be punished and that's why they're being excluded. So many times I was excluded countless times.

Alex: Imagine it – – an eight year old kid being trapped in a room and then excluded from school, because he needed help coping with his emotions. And the school didn’t know how.

Ben: My parents have since told me that they did not think I'd actually reach the end of primary school – they thought I'd be permanently excluded before that

Alex: Thankfully, things did change. For most of his teenage years, Ben was able to go to a special educational needs school - known as SEN.

Ben: Whenever I had a disagreement, or a falling out or, or a meltdown or anything, they would work tirelessly to get me to understand and to go back over.

Alex: One of the things Ben needed support with was reading comprehension.

Ben: And you wouldn't think this, but reading comprehension is actually really difficult for autistic people. Because the questions are worded in such a way that it's very hard to understand them, such as a question saying, in this text, what does the author what is the author thinking? What I don't know what the author said, the author thinking what they're gonna have for lunch? I actually did say that a few times.

Alex: His teachers would sit down with Ben and go over practice SATS papers.

Ben: And would say, look out for the non autistic friendly questions. He called it un-autistically friendly questions. And then would say, Okay, this is how we approach it, we say, what do they want you to answer? And it was through that I actually realised that they were… that school was there to help you in school. And not only first of all, they understood, they understood me and accepted me for who I was, and then what they wanted to do was to actually help shape me and this was academically. And they also helped socially and in the sense that if I ever had a meltdown, they would not only help me calm down, but then afterwards they would talk over with me what went wrong, and then what could be better next time they did nothing to punish me or anything

Alex: Ben was never excluded from this school. The staff took the time to help him understand his own emotions.

Ben: Autistic people actually sometimes struggle to associate the punishment with whatever the reason for punishment is and as well it's not a great way for developing punish punishment is not greatly for development. So instead it was all constructive and being sitting down and working out what had gone wrong. And then finding the solution finding strategies to cope and that was such an amazing experience to go through all of that and I've come at the end of as a much better rounded individual.

Alex: One of Ben’s favourite teachers at the school was Mr. Bishop. He wore glasses and a fleece jacket. He would make cheesy jokes that Ben rolled his eyes at but kinda secretly loved.

Ben: He would be a person I could go and talk to about any worry I had. He had this amazing ability to calm people down and calm me down very in such a good way but also never was never really told people off even if you tell people don't fit with is always in a very constructive way and he was he didn't shout or anything

I cannot imagine where I'd be without without being a special school. And it's also very inspiring to know that one school one school that is accepting and inclusive and understanding can make that much of a difference to someone's life.

Alex: When it was time for Ben to go to sixth form college to study for his A-levels, he knew that he was ready to join a mainstream school. But finding one with the right support wasn’t easy.

A staff member at a school he was interested in sent him an email…

Ben: …saying Ben, your face blindness to health and safety issue, which was one of the most offensive things I've actually heard. Incredibly ableist… so offensively ableist.

Alex: A health and safety issue. Ben couldn’t believe what he was reading.

Ben: Anger is what I felt after that I felt very angry…. Why? Why? Just, there's no reason to say something like that there's no there's no point – and I really want to go to that school and then I was sad, a bit tearful and I was worried that no way I would actually be accepting an understanding of me and that was an absolutely horrible thing to experience.

Alex: Happily though, Ben did find a sixth form college that was supportive.

Ben: The thing that makes difference is we've got a head of Sixth Form who is incredibly accepting and understanding of me

Alex: Her name is Ms. Dearing.

Ben: She noticed the last year before a set of mocks that I was extremely tired and it was only a couple of days before my mock started and she specifically came up to me and said Ben you are too tired to do any revision, go home and do not revise because you will just wear yourself out and it was amazing that she actually spotted that and said well yeah I'm telling other people to revise but don't you don't want to work yourself out.

Alex: In 2019 Ben took his interest in politics to the next level and joined the Liberal Democrats. He’s especially involved in the Young Liberals, which is the youth wing of the party.

Ben: It was during 2021 I was talking to a friend of mine, who's also in the party, and we realised that no political organisation, no major political organisation has a policy on special needs education.

Alex: Ben took matters into his own hands. Over the next six months, he wrote the Young Liberals’ policy on special needs education. He submitted it to be considered at the party’s national conference. It was accepted, and Ben was invited to speak at the conference.

Ben: When I was doing that speech at a conference, I was because I have high anxiety, I was physically shaking, physically shivering, and it was letting all my emotions out to a roomful of probably about 60, 70, maybe 80 people.

Alex: Ben poured his heart out during that speech.

Ben: I was incredibly open about what they need to spin how difficult my life had been due to two the problems with special needs education, which is ultimately a crisis: there is a SEN crisis within this country.

I was there by myself standing in front of a room full of people. Most of whom I'd never met before, but some who I knew and had to offload about this experience that I'd been through. It was it was a tough experience. But it's… it was well worth it.

I remember that people would just start clapping. And by the end I actually got what was effectively a standing ovation. And one of the few people to get that at the conference, which is a memory that will probably stick with me for a very long time.

Alex: Ben even won an award for best speech.

Ben: I'm extremely proud to see that it's been acknowledged – that my difficulties been acknowledged by a youth political organisation that also passed a policy almost unanimously.

Ben: The thing is, we can now lobby, we can effectively call for change. And also campaigning on it and calling for the government to make change about special needs education. And it’s also hopefully a vessel we can use to raise awareness about special needs education, and calling on our elected representatives to acknowledge the SEN crisis and make a difference. Hopefully people won't have to go through what I've been through in future.

I have this skill where I can do a very powerful speech. And I know other autistic people and other disabled people could also do very powerful speeches. And we can a lot of us can put our mind to something and put out our mind to writing this policy and researching it and then to writing this speech. And I just want to say that actually we can do stuff we can make a difference. And in this as well, if we get the right support, both in education and in society, we can make a massive difference.

Alex: When he was growing up, Ben felt an anger and frustration – – that he couldn’t control and didn’t know what to do with. Now, he’s channeling that anger into making real positive change for people with autism and for SEN students.

Ben: Autism is not a negative, autism is not positive. Autism just makes you different. And that is a key, my key principles about disability. Disability is not a bad word. I want to change people's perceptions of disability. People make too many assumptions that it is something that's negatively affecting you. And actually, it isn't always. It can be difficult. I've been – being a disabled person I think can be difficult, but there are many perks. And for me, it's having a logical thinking brain, it's for having a very good memory. And I am proud of it and I'm proud of my autism. And if I didn't have my autism, I'd not be myself. So that's one of the greatest things I've learned is to be content with with my disability

Alex: Ben has clearly been through a powerful emotional journey in his life so far. Ironically, having autism has meant that Ben can struggle to relate to and control emotions, yet he demonstrates a deep understanding of his own condition and the world in which he finds himself. As Ben says, the challenges with being autistic mainly stem from the fact that the world is set-up for those who do not have autism. The onus is always on those who are different to find ways of adapting. Ben’s campaigning has started early and is crucial in a time when key services have suffered significant funding cuts. And we can not allow people to be neglected as it isn’t accommodating for differences that lead to marginalization.