Temple Grandin, Ph.D., a pioneering animal behaviorist and advocate for neurodiversity, will deliver a live Zoom presentation with audience Q&A at Seminole State College from 2 to 3 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10, in the Jeff Johnston Auditorium. The event, free and open to the public, is titled “Animal Welfare Presented Through the Lens of Autism.” No link will be provided. You must attend in person to see the presentation.
Grandin has worked for more than five decades to apply her observations of animal behavior to livestock handling practices. Her work has contributed to the development of curved chutes, lighting adjustments and low-stress systems intended to reduce fear and injuries in cattle and pigs. Today, across North America, a significant share of cattle is handled in center-track restrainer systems based on her designs, and her facility audits are used in processing plants. Her methods are studied by agriculture and veterinary students as examples of how field observation and iterative prototyping can affect industry practices.
A professor of animal science at Colorado State University for more than 30 years, Grandin has written about how sensory differences and visual thinking influenced her approach to problem-solving. Diagnosed with autism, she has become a public advocate for humane handling and autism awareness. She was named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in 2010, and her life was portrayed that same year in the Emmy-winning HBO biopic Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes.
Grandin encourages students and educators to recognize different cognitive strengths, including visual and hands-on thinking. She has said that students who sketch, tinker, weld, wire and build play a key role in solving practical problems in fields such as agriculture, manufacturing, health care and technology. In her 2022 book, Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions, she advocates for the return of shop classes, lab-based coursework and project-based assessments that prioritize practical skills alongside traditional academics.
A new 2025 documentary, An Open Door, explores Grandin’s life and the broader movement for inclusion that her work has intersected with. The film follows her path from a scientist who faced communication challenges to a mentor to families, teachers and students.
The appearance is sponsored by Seminole State College’s Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI) federal grant program, which is fully federally funded in the amount of $450,000 annually. The NASNTI program supports student success initiatives, implements assistive technology for students with disabilities, and hosts cultural programming on campus.