Autistic people’s priorities for change across Europe

Researchers from the University of Cambridge led a study investigating autistic people’s priorities for change in collaboration with colleagues in the AIMS-2-TRIALS consortium including autism community members and autism charity representatives across Europe.

Although globally autism diagnosis rates are on the rise and autism awareness is improving, autistic people and carers still face significant challenges in receiving the necessary services and going through their day-to-day life. It is vital that policies on autism strive to address these issues and meet the needs of the autism community more effectively.

The 10 Points for Change survey was distributed in multiple European languages and collected data from 1,709 autistic people, parents and careers of autistic people and members of autism-related organisations.

In this study published in Molecular Autism, the team identified the 10 most important areas for change for autistic people across Europe. Autistic people ranked education, public awareness and understanding of autism, employment, discrimination, mental healthcare, bullying/ abuse, government funding for autism-specific services, social inclusion, diagnostic services and financial hardship as the highest priority areas for change. Parents and members of autism-related organisations agreed with many of the priority areas for change but ranked support for daily living, early intervention and post-diagnostic support within the top 10 priorities.

This work highlights the need for change to improve the lives of autistic people across Europe including improvements to key services like education and mental healthcare as well as societal changes such as public understanding of autism, social inclusion and bullying. Policies on autism at both national and European Union (EU) levels should therefore focus on these areas, as policy action is an integral mechanism for protecting the rights and improving the wellbeing of autistic people.