In this second piece about their zine, Cervical screening for trans+ autistic people: A tool for self advocacy, researchers Georgia Rivers and Katie Munday reflect on the motives for and process of their collaboration.
This blog is a reflection on creating a zine as two queer neurodivergent researchers. As such, it’s a bit messy! It is predominantly written from Katie’s point of view with responses from Ge.
I’m not sure how Ge and I found each other. Ge was doing their PhD in Sheffield, and I was just about to start mine in Portsmouth. We had spoken online briefly (another moment of “this person does great queer work; we need to talk!”) then we met at the OUTPatients LGBTIQ+ Cancer Conference: From Awareness to Action.
I think it was Ge’s idea to do something that looked at the trans+ autistic intersection in cervical screening. They created a shared zine template on Canva and, I suppose, the rest is history.
Ge: Actually, we spoke about making a zine together online. Then we met at OUTpatients and you had no idea who I was.
Outrageous but not entirely incorrect (whoops!). Anyways… Ge and I work in different areas (predominantly psychology, sociology, nursing, midwifery and social work), but we are both radically interdisciplinary within our research and practice that, honestly, so many areas of thinking crossover!
Ge: It’s weird to work out what area I work in. I like so many different things and don’t just want to stick to one.
Across our areas of work, we both aim to make information more useful and accessible to the people who need it, so sharing information in a queer way made sense. If I’m honest, it intrigued and excited me, making a research “output” without needing others’ permission or insight into whether it fit an academic “gold standard”. Our zine doesn’t care for your Research Excellence Framework; it cares for our community.
Cut, Paste, Resist
There is currently very little information shared about cervical screening. There is even less support for people who find it difficult, unless the patient knows exactly what to ask for. But even then, it is not a given.
People can experience minimisation of their fears and worries, often being told there is nothing to worry about and it shouldn’t hurt. I had previously spoken to a survivor of sexual violence who shared their concern about the speculum with the practitioner, only to have the practitioner reply “it’s not that big” (Tansley et al., 2024).
Ge: I also know someone with a near identical story. In a GP appointment, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse shared their discomfort around screening; the practitioner showed them the speculum and said, “it’s not as big as you think”. The practitioner hadn’t considered that some people will find cervical screening scary, difficult and painful and that they might want more support than a patronising comment. It’s now been three years, and this person still hasn’t been screened because they know they’d be seen by someone who wouldn’t be sensitive or reassuring to their discomfort.
With these ongoing issues in mind, we created Cervical screening for trans+ autistic people: A tool for self-advocacy zine, to let people know what they can expect from the experience, but also what they can ask for. We designed the zine so that readers could make more informed decisions about cervical screening without having to trawl through gendered medical information or having to overexplain themselves as they lay vulnerable on an examining table.
Making the thing we needed
We worked toward a delicate balance of getting the right type and amount of information in the zine (until we get more feedback it remains difficult to know if we succeeded). We thought it was important to start the zine with who we are and what viewpoints, knowledge and experience we were sharing whilst also making it clear that we are not medical professionals, just two people trying to reduce harm in our community.
There is information out there on trans+ cervical screening (Eve Appeal and OUTpatients are some great ones) and information to help autistic people who may need more information or support (Macmillan do great easy read leaflets). However, there is not much (if any) information about being a trans+ autistic person who may want to attend cervical screening.
We shared information that covered these topics specifically for trans+ autistic people (appreciating that this may help others too – bonus!):
- What is cervical screening?
- What does screening involve?
- Who can attend screening?
- What to expect at your screening appointment
- Screening as a trans+ person
- Screening as an autistic person
- Screening as a trans+ autistic person
- What can I ask for before, during, and after my screening appointment?
- Findings from Ge’s research
- Katie’s experience of screening
- Where to find more information
Ultimately, we wanted to make a zine that shared the answers to some of our own questions, and information that I would have wanted to access before my first of several screenings.
A Good Zine is an Accessible Zine
Accessibility and inclusivity were very important to us. We spent a lot of time thinking about imagery, colours, and text size and contrast. We also wanted to make sure the language was easy to understand whilst still getting our meaning across.
We used sans serif font of size 16 or above and avoided italics and bold text wherever possible. I shared the zine in full as plain text on my website so people with screen readers could access the text. The zine is available on Heyzine for free and people can choose to buy a copy from Penfight, on a sliding scale. Making our zine free and low cost, whilst supporting a queer zine press, creates greater access for the community.
Ge: I used WebAIM: Contrast Checker to check that the contrast between text and background was high enough to be readable. When designing the zine, I (now regrettably) had in mind that I wanted it to still feel like a serious academic thing. Something that would be viewed as a legitimate output from my PhD. I now wish I leant more into zine culture. I wish I made it more political and less palatable. And this is something I’ll probably do if I go into making zines for research again.
I think accessibility is super punk and political. I am less inclined to ask permission for most things, but I often bump up against how these elements of my work and myself fit together. I often wonder what activism and research have to offer each other whilst abundantly aware that transphobia and ableism run rampant in the academy. One of the things I loved about this whole process was being able to “give” permission, both to other community members to get the care they need and to other early career researchers and students (including us) to do things outside of journal impact factors.
Since sharing the zine, we’ve been told by multiple people that it’s been helpful to them. This was our real aim; creating something that could help our community. We wanted to give people permission to ask for what they need and share some options of things they are allowed to ask for. The people who have told us this would not have found out the information from Ge’s thesis or journal articles. They found out because we made sure the information was accessible and not hidden behind a paywall.
About the author
Dr Georgia Rivers did a qualitative PhD between 2021-2025 on transmasculine people’s experiences of cervical screening in the North of England. As their PhD topic stemmed from their own anxieties around cervical screening, it was important to them to make sure findings were shared outside of the academic sphere.
Katie Munday has worked as a community researcher on cancer service accessibility since 2021, focused on accessibility and affirmation for trans and Disabled people. Their current ESRC-funded PhD study explores health and social care experiences of transgender and gender diverse autistic adults living in the UK. Katie wanted to share their own experiences of cervical screening to help normalise conversations about cervical health. More of their work can be found on their website https://autisticltd.co.uk/.
References
Tansley, R., Corbin-Clarke, S., Munday, K., Durrant, A. and Hughes, M. (2024). “What I would like to say” findings: Cancer care for everyone. Journal of Community Nursing, 38 (1), 46-50. https://www.jcn.co.uk/journals/issue/02-2024/article/what-i-would-like-to-say-findings-cancer-care-for-everyone
