In the run-up to the General Election we ran our Change the Conversation campaign to make sure that every political candidate heard directly from autistic people.   

We created a toolkit to support autistic people to campaign in a way that works for them from writing to candidates, speaking to political campaigners on the doorstep, to campaigning creatively and sharing stories on social media. 

We asked autistic people of their experiences of campaigning: 

• 6 in 10 autistic people say anxiety makes it difficult or impossible to campaign. 
• Almost 1 in 3 autistic people said they don’t have any opportunities to get involved with politics or campaigning.  
• 9 in 10 autistic people find one or more campaign methods hard or impossible to be involved with. With accessibility being an issue for almost everyone.    

It’s important that autistic people have just as many opportunities to shape politics in the UK. We want to change how people talk about autism, help increase understanding and find new ways for autistic people to be politically involved.