Autistic people share their stories

When I was a kid, autism was, you know, seen as something incredibly rare for young boys who were quite robotic.

It meant that I grew up knowing that I was different and wrong.

Like, I felt like I was getting everything wrong.

You start off thinking, Oh, no, everybody feels this way.

Everybody's struggling and they're just so much better at hiding it than I am, or they're so much better at, you know, getting through.

It gets taken on as flaws.

You know, there's a million different ways that I've been told that I'm wrong.

So I spent my life trying to fix myself just in every possible way.

And then I got diagnosed.

The biggest weight fell off my shoulders because I thought I mean, it should have been obvious, but I thought, I can't, I can't fix myself.

This is me hard wired.

This is my wiring.

I can't fix myself. So I can stop trying.

I've been trying.

And that was massive.

Massive.

Oh, my God.

So many things.

A lot of mental health professionals have very antiquated and stereotyped ideas of what an autistic person looks like, acts like, sounds like.

And if you don't fit that mould, they're just like, you can't be autistic.

It's this just massive stereotypes that really need to be addressed.

And I think that's one of a really important thing that the National Autism Strategy needs to address, is that, the heterogeneity of autism and how autistic people present.

But also then what is the core of being autistic? What are the main things that we share and how these can be accommodated for.

Autistic researchers and autistic people need to be the source of information for the National Autism Strategy, and they need to be all types of autistic people because I can't speak for the experience of other people.

You know, who've had a different life experience from me.

People need to get involved because otherwise the autism strategy is not going to help autistic people as a whole.

And so it'll just be it just desperately need to hear, especially hear from everybody, but especially from people who don't normally have a voice, who already don't feel represented.

Like if you don't feel represented in the general sort of discussion about autism, then absolutely desperately need to hear from those people.

My name is Jen.

I was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum when I was 37 years old in 2011.

Since 2017, I have been involved with the autistic and autism communities in many different ways.

I have experience of being unemployed for periods of time, and also I've been underemployed.

The unemployment and underemployment rates are high for people with disabilities and are even higher for autistic people.

I have two bachelor degrees, yet due to me not being able to find work within my fields of study, using my degrees, I worked in a supermarket, on the check-outs for 15 and a half years.

The work was not stimulating or rewarding and at times affected my mental health.

For me, hopefully the strategy will make employment for autistic people easier and amongst other things, will play a part in driving down the unemployment and the underemployment rates for autistic people.

Hopefully a lot more autistic people will find work that is satisfying and rewarding and is also in accordance with their skill sets, knowledge and interests.

I think that the National Autism Strategy will increase awareness of autism and make autistic people more visible.

Hopefully this strategy will improve the lives and well-being of autistic people greatly.

I think that the strategy will make a huge positive difference in the lives of autistic people
in many different ways.

I think that it is important that as many people as possible should contribute to the development of a National Autism Strategy.

So the National Autism Strategy will make life for autistic people better in many ways around Australia.

The strategy is being co-designed, which is imperative to the success of the development of the strategy.

I know from experience that co-design and input from autistic people is pivotal in order to make change.

All autistic voices hopefully will be heard and considered.

Please contribute to the development of a National Autism Strategy wherever you can.

The more autistic voices are heard and listened to, the better.

My name is Kirk.

I'm 30 years old and I'm autistic.

I enjoy designing.

That's what I do for work.

I also enjoy reading.

I work in the public sector where I do user experience and service design.

And people would say that I'm inquisitive,

I'm very curious, and I'm not afraid to ask questions.

And that's, that's me in a nutshell.

I would like this strategy to give extra support for autistic people, especially those who are marginalized with more opportunity and growth and also employment.

I also know that the autism unemployment level in Australia is very high.

It currently stands at 34.1%, which is more than three times the rate of people with a disability and almost eight times the rate of people without a disability.

I would like to see autistic employment programs that are focused on, on arts design or, or in the creative industries.

So essentially just broaden the diversity of employment for autistic people.

Autistic and neurodivergent individuals can help establish essential criteria for the strategy.

So, for example, they can they can make their own suggestions for autistic people in it around employment, support services and opportunities.

And we would hear many different opinions from people across all walks of life, not just those who are autistic.

Essentially, we want to bring as many people to the table as possible.

My name's Nick.

I'm 71. I'm an autistic elder.

That's what I call myself now, being that old.

I didn't have a clue, actually, I didn't have a clue until I was 60, that I was ... that I was autistic.

I have a passion for helping people understand autistic people and see them as human and as having human rights like everyone else and that’s what hopefully the strategy, the Australian strategy should sort of be another way to know More accessible diagnosis for older people, subsidised hopefully with Medicare and a real emphasis on a real, an attempt to build connectivity between autistic people in Australia so that they can relate to each other.

For friendship purposes, for support purposes, for getting accurate information about what's it like being autistic at any age, including when you're older.

So that they as a community will have their own sense of a network.

In other words, they come out of just being nothing to having an actual community in name rather than just in the label autistic community.

That will .... they’re the two things that would make a real difference to the lives of every autistic person in Australia.

This is the first time that any government, let alone Parliament, has said, look, we really need to kind of pay a bit more attention to these people who have been neglected for decades, this is acknowledged by the government and that we needed to have an all ages, all cultures type strategy to address that huge gap that is there.

It's really worthwhile for us as individuals, for all autistic people in Australia to speak out and be heard.

It's not easy.

It may be even a bit scary, but it’ll be a supported process, a trauma informed process.

There'll be a series of questions, but there will also be opportunities to talk about, like I am, just about your lived experience, you know well what is it like being autistic?

How are you part of society, which we are.

Use your voice with government, use your voice with state governments, be activists, be very active.

That really will help everybody.