This paper presents two studies that explored community attitudes to autism in Australia; and
autistic people and their families' perspectives of community attitudes. In Study One 2424
(primarily non-autistic) people completed a survey on autism-related knowledge and
attitudes; identifying a number of misperceptions and knowledge gaps in the general
community. In Study Two 1353 people (primarily parents and carers of autistic people)
completed a survey on autism-related experiences; identifying that the community's�…

There is limited research examining the inclusion of autistic people in their local
communities. This paper reports on two Australian studies which explored this gap, focusing
on both autistic people's experiences and non-autistic people's attitudes towards autistic
individuals. Study One was conducted with primarily non-autistic people (n= 2,383), and
Study Two with primarily parents and carers of autistic people (n= 1,297 people). The
majority of non-autistic adults perceived discrimination against autistic people in the�…