Autistic people and their families have worked alongside the National Autistic Society to create a vision for a society that works for them as part of our ambitious Moonshot project. 

The Moonshot project was launched at the start of 2022 to get a better understanding of what a society should look and feel like for autistic people and their families.  This vision will help us, and others, to better target our work and be more impactful. 

Over 500 people with different needs and backgrounds shared their thoughts and insights with us. The project has involved working alongside autistic people, their families, people who work with autistic people, our staff members, partners, key decision makers and influencers. 

Throughout the project, we aimed to ensure that all parts of society, and every stage and aspect of autistic life, has been recognised and valued. 

We reached out to autistic people and their families through social media, workshops, surveys, interviews, discussions and non-verbal creative activities such as videos and drawings.  

There were five key themes or ‘future realities’ that came from the research to describe a society that works for autistic people. The Moonshot Vision describes a society that: 

• Values autistic individuals 
• Maximises autistic power 
• Guarantees support 
• Adapts public spaces and services 
• And is free from discrimination 

Caroline Stevens, CEO of the National Autistic Society, said: “In the charity’s 60th year, we wanted to find out more about what a future society should look and feel like for autistic people and their families. 

“It was clear from our research that as a society we still have a long way to go to understanding the value that autistic individuals can bring to our community. Society needs to respect the integral role of autistic people, friends, families and carers have in each other’s lives. 

​“The Moonshot project aimed to give us tangible goals to aim for, not just for our organisation but for the whole of society including other organisations, campaigners and governments.​ 

“We called it ‘Moonshot’ because it’s ambitious, and reaching it is going to take years of hard work on many different things – just like landing someone on the moon all those years ago. But the fact it won’t be easy makes it even more important.” 

We will now go on to define our strategy and the role we will uniquely take in striving towards a society that works for autistic people. 

Caroline Stevens adds: “We are enormously grateful to the autistic people, their families, carers and everyone else who has contributed to the Moonshot Vision.  

“The next step for the National Autistic Society is to develop and share a new strategy that defines our role in achieving a society that works for autistic people.  

“This work is already well under way, and we look forward to sharing our new strategy in 2023.”  

Further information 

For more information about Moonshot, visit our page here.