How to Support Us

The Do's and Don'ts

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When an autistic person discloses to you that they are autistic do not respond with:

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- You don't look autistic

- Are you on Medication?

- How did you catch that?

- You must have the mild kind

- I know someone who has it really bad

- Are you high functioning?

- What type do you have?

- You must be really good at maths

- What is your special ability?

- It's OK we are all a little bit autistic

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Although when saying these things you may be well meaning and trying to understand the person telling you, what you are actually doing is being dismissive of their struggles.

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What you can do instead is:

- Listen to us

- Ask how you can help

-Educate yourselves on autism

-Support the right charities

- Be respectful

- Show your support

- Ask them how they like to communicate

- Be patient

- Be kind

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Gifs and Memes have been a game changer for how I communicate. I will send gifs to my mentor of a burning house when my day is not going well. As I am a visual learner I find communicating in this way helps express things more light heartedley than just moaning about how bad my day is going.

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Some managers however, do not like this way of communication so I have to learn my audience however, I do have one manager where I am allowed to express myself in this way and they will often respond with gifs to. It becomes a conversation through pictures.

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I really struggle to navigate group chats and therefore am not really involved in them. I am certainly not involved in any whatsapp group chats involving work colleagues. 7 hours on Microsoft Teams is more than enough for me. I communicate individually.

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