Attitudes towards Autism

Personal Accounts

"I usually get stares and tuts from people who just think I'm a bad mother. I even once had a woman in a supermarket tell me that I shouldn't take my son out in public even after I explained that he is autistic. People have even made complaints to store managers about my son's behaviour because his screaming has bothered them." (Mother of an eight-year-old boy with autism, Simmons, 2008)

"If people had a little more training or education then you wouldn't need to change anything. People in councils, job centres, etc need to have some sort of training about autism. People who work with the public should be able to ask themselves whether the people they're working with have got autism." (Middle-aged man with Asperger syndrome, Simmons, 2008)

Updated

29 Feb 2016