An autistic man who could not read or write until he was 18 has become Cambridge University's youngest-ever Black professor. Professor Jason Arday, 37, has spoken out over his struggle with autism and learning delays that left him speechless till he was age 11.
Therapists and career advisers predicted he would spend his adult life in assisted living and require lifelong support. He has now taken up one of the most prestigious professorship posts in one of the world's leading top universities and is the youngest Black person to do it.
He joins just five other Black professors in the institution and will become one of just 155 Black university professors in the UK, out of a total of 23,000. The sociology professor remembers being "violently rejected" when he first started writing academically.
