{"id":13359,"date":"2025-05-11T12:01:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T11:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pdasociety.org.uk\/?p=13359"},"modified":"2026-04-19T14:34:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T13:34:41","slug":"welcome-to-our-new-website-and-what-you-can-do-to-make-it-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pdasociety.org.uk\/pda2025staging\/welcome-to-our-new-website-and-what-you-can-do-to-make-it-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to our new website (and what you can do to make it better)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why a new website? Why a new logo?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Back in May 2023, we started this journey by asking you to tell us about your lives, and what you wished would change. Nearly 1000 of you responded. Those responses became the PDA in Our Words<\/em> report. You told us what was hard. What you were struggling with. What support you weren\u2019t getting. What made things harder than they needed to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest barriers you named was this: not enough people understand PDA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This message echoed beyond the survey, in training requests, on social media, in our learning networks. It felt (and this is pretty rare in our community) like everyone was saying the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professionals told us they struggled to explain PDA clearly to colleagues. Parents said the information they found online was overwhelming, or just didn\u2019t reflect their reality. PDAers said the language often didn\u2019t feel like theirs<\/em>. And everyone agreed-we needed a change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What we did (and who we did it with)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, we listened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We asked more questions. In Facebook groups, in forums, during training, in DMs and emails. We spoke to PDAers, families, professionals, and people who\u2019ve never quite felt at home in the PDA community-but still saw something in it that spoke to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We worked with researchers from the University of Hertfordshire and University of Birmingham. Together, we explored how PDAers self-identify, how they want to be talked about, and how they don\u2019t<\/em> want to be talked about. The goal? To speak in a voice that holds both clinical credibility and lived experience. A voice that\u2019s clear without being cold. Respectful without being sterile. Honest, human, and kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in October 2024, we brought everything together at our trustee away day. That\u2019s when we agreed to act. What you\u2019re seeing now-the new site, the new look, the new tone-is the first step in that plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s changed?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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We\u2019ve launched a new brand: it\u2019s friendlier, more modern, and (we hope) more reflective of who we are. Our logo is made of two hand drawn circles to reflect the grassroots nature of the PDA Society and our connection to the community. Readability has also been considered from tone of voice, through to fonts, colours and layouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want this site to feel like it belongs to you, whether you\u2019ve known us for years or you\u2019re just discovering PDA for the first time. We want professionals to feel like they\u2019ve found a credible source. We want families to feel safe and understood. We want PDAers to feel seen and supported, not judged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve published our values<\/strong> near the top of the menu-because they\u2019re not just words. They\u2019re what we want you to feel<\/em> in every email, article, training, or support session. They\u2019re how we hold ourselves accountable. Think of them as our contract with you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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And we\u2019ve gone through every page-every question asked, every article written-to rebuild our information from the ground up. Over 100 new or refreshed pages are now live. Some are short and practical, like how to help a child get dressed when everything feels like too much. Others go deep, exploring the systems, structures, and policies that shape people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every page has been designed with its reader in mind. Some are warm and bite-sized. Others are detailed and direct. But we hope \u2013 if you find yourself on one of our pages it will give you what you are looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what about the images?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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One of the biggest challenges we faced was choosing images for the site. You might notice we\u2019ve used illustrations rather than photos-and we know some people will wish there were more visuals. Honestly, we do too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we\u2019ve taken our time here, because we realised that asking PDAers – especially children – to be photographed can itself be a demand. And getting consent that holds up years down the line, when a child might want to withdraw it as an adult, didn\u2019t feel right. Nothing online truly disappears. We also read research showing that many autistic people find illustrations easier to relate to – they\u2019re more open, less individual, and leave more room for people to see themselves in the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we\u2019re using illustrations carefully and intentionally, we\u2019ll build them up over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My personal delight (and ongoing promise to you all) is that this site does not (and will not while I\u2019m here) have a single image of a PDAer with their head in their hands! The images are intended to be respectful, joyous and human \u2013 I hope they feel like that to you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

But they might not, we might have got some stuff wrong, or missed out the stuff you might need to know<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

And if it’s a problem for you \u2013 it might be for someone else. And we take that seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If something\u2019s not working-if you can\u2019t find what you need, if something feels off-please let us know. Please tell us if there is something you love \u2013 that we should do more of. If no one tells us \u2013 we won\u2019t know! There\u2019s a feedback form linked below. We\u2019ll check the feedback regularly. And we\u2019ll tell you what we\u2019re hearing, and what we\u2019re changing, in a blog like this one at regular points over the next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, we\u2019ll make big changes because you\u2019ve spoken clearly as a community. Other times, we\u2019ll bring old favourites back into the spotlight-because even if something was written years ago, it might still speak to someone new today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing has been lost. The old site is archived. If there\u2019s something you loved, just ask-we\u2019ll make sure it lives on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who made this possible?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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This wasn\u2019t the work of one person, or even one team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the first survey to the brand design, hundreds of people have contributed their time, insight and lived experience. Around 50 of them-mostly parents, PDAers, and people directly affected by demand anxiety-worked closely with us on the final stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brand designer is a parent of a PDAer. The tone of voice specialist is too. The people who wrote and proofread the new content? Mostly parents and PDAers. The people who tested the layout, questioned the decisions, pushed us to do better? PDAers. Families. You.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people were paid, many volunteered, everyone put 100% into trying to make it easier to talk about PDA and be trusted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hope that shows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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And finally<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re a small charity. We can\u2019t promise everything, and we won\u2019t always get it right. But we can<\/em> promise this: we\u2019ll keep listening. We\u2019ll keep learning. And we\u2019ll keep trying to make life easier for PDAers and demand avoidant people-together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if there is anything you think we need to know here is the website feedback form<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Happy PDA Day 2025!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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