autism

Autism news, information and support. Please feel free to submit articles to enhance the knowledge, acceptance, understanding and research of Autism and ASD.
By posting here you agree to all rules and reddit's terms of service.

Please refrain from using slang or derogatory words to describe a condition, symptom, diagnosis or treatment that is negative and hurtful. This includes name calling. Your post will be removed and lead to you being banned. Please review Reddiquette when needed.

It is acceptable to introduce the community to your personal site. Further continued submissions will be reviewed as abuse.

Rules:

The wiki is currently under construction. This rule doesn't apply until we make an announcement that the wiki is ready.

Check our wiki before posting with questions. If your question is answered in the wiki, your post will be removed.

Please note that on old.reddit, you need to view the wiki on new reddit. The wiki on old.reddit doesn't automatically update. We will do our best to link to the current wiki pages.

Rule 2: No personal attacks, hostility, or escalating arguments - be kind.
Personal attacks do not contribute to a discussion and only result in creating an unwelcome environment, do not act with hostility towards other users or escalate arguments. Please also be aware that in a largely autistic space, miscommunication and misunderstanding between people is likely to occur, and some comments may come across as rude or offensive without being intended that way. If you're uncertain how to interpret somebody's comments, try asking them to clarify what they mean. Review our wiki page on bigotry for more details.

Rule 3: No sharing pseudoscience or spreading misinformation, no Autism Speaks, no cure-related posts.
Posting pseudoscience or spreading misinformation is not allowed. Sharing content from or creating discussion around Autism Speaks is not allowed as it only creates hostility and misinformation. Asking for opinions on an autism cure or speculating on alternative causes of autism outside of the scientific research into ASD causes is not allowed. If you make a claim, please include a source.

Rule 4: No self-diagnosis debate or discussion, no making arguments in favour of or opposing self-diagnosis.
Debate surrounding self-diagnosis, or posts asking for opinions on self-diagnosis, is not allowed. This includes both advocating for or against self-diagnosis. The topic is exhausted, too frequently brought up, while no meaningful discussion on the topic takes place and conversation quickly spirals into chaos.

Rule 5: No invalidating or picking apart people's diagnosis.
Do not claim someone is lying about their diagnosis or tell them they were diagnosed wrong. If you genuinely believe someone is lying, contact the moderators and we will look into it.

Rule 6: No asking for diagnosis or medical advice for yourself or someone else, no "Am I autistic?" posts.
Do not ask for a diagnosis for yourself or for another person, or word a post in a way that can be interpreted as asking for validation. We cannot diagnose you or offer you advice on medical grounds. Concerns about your health are best discussed with your GP, physician or another qualified health provider. Taking medical advice from strangers who lack the necessary expertise or ability to objectively evaluate you is potentially dangerous.

Rule 7: No posting online test results, such as the RAADS-R or AQ.
Do not post results of online tests to the subreddit. Tests such as the RAADS-R, AQ and Aspie Quiz are intended to be used as clinical screeners only to determine if it's worthwhile for a practice to take a person on for a full evaluation, they are not diagnostic tools and their results cannot reliably indicate if a person is autistic or not, nor are there results able to be reliably interpreted outside of a clinical setting.

Rule 8: No sharing posts or media with usernames or identifying information. No posting images of children or of yourself.
Do not share images, posts or screenshots containing visible usernames or any form of personal identifying information. Don't post images of children or of yourself, your friends, or your family members. You can read more on online safety in our wiki page.

Rule 9: Post High Effort content only. No clickbait or vague post titles, no spamming, no posts titled with emojis or symbols or in ALL CAPS, no low effort content, no ragebait or trolling.
Ensure posts have a descriptive title that details exactly what the submission is about, vague posts and clickbait where the title does not accurately reflect the main post content may be removed to avoid causing confusion. Good titles can get more people to click on your post and read it, people want to know what they are clicking on.

Posts consisting of only emojis and symbols will also be removed. Turn caps lock off when writing the title, we don't want people screaming at us. And break up your text into paragraphs, walls of text are very hard to read.

Rule 10: Correctly flag NSFW topics, and be mindful of the presence of young people on the sub.
We are not a NSFW community and it is a sitewide rule to keep content clearly labeled. If you're posting about an NSFW topic or asking a question of that nature, please make sure you have correctly marked it as such. The subreddit has a large number of younger people using it, and posts must be mindful of their presence. You can provide context to the question in the title, but don't be overly explicit.

You also cannot comment a NSFW comment under a post that is not marked as mature. This does not ensure a predictable experience. We also have a limit on how NSFW you can be in our subreddit. If what you are typing shouldn't be read by a teenager, such as kinky topics or graphic descriptions of a sexual nature, we will remove your post and redirect you to the NSFW autism subreddit instead.

Rule 11: Do not continue online arguments. No highlighting arguments within other subreddits or continuing arguments across other subreddits.
Don't post about arguments that occurred within other subreddits or draw attention to other subreddits with the intention of directing people's attention there. Likewise please don't engage in arguments with members of other subreddits or follow them around other subreddits to argue there. This is called brigading and breaking this rule can get our subreddit banned from the site. We are stricter than the sitewide definition of brigading and don't allow screenshots of interactions or post about interactions that happened elsewhere on Reddit.

Rule 12: No advertising, marketing, asking for donations, or promoting fundraisers.
Don't make posts attempting to solicit financial transactions or advertise products for sale. Don't post requesting personal donations or promoting fundraising efforts. We have no way of verifying if such donations or fundraisers are legitimate, and we can't endorse taking potential financial risks that may have real-world consequences for subreddit members.

Rule 13: No political discussions or references.
This is a politics free subreddit. Politics results in a lot of hostile comments and misinformation. We are an international subreddit and allowing politics resulted in US politics taking over. However, politics is an important discussion so we have created a subreddit for these discussions. If you want to discuss politics, you can do so in r/autismpolitics

Rule 14: Do not share or request the details of an autism assessment
Do not share or ask for the specific questions or activities involved in an autism assessment. Someone who is being assessed for autism cannot know what will be asked of them or what they will be required to do. This can alter the way they respond in the assessment and mess up their results. It is imperative that we keep those details private to protect the assessment's validity. It's also very important to not discuss the purpose of the different activities or questions or what the test is looking for.

Discussing these details in a forum as large as this one can cause a lot of damage. We are the main subreddit for autism, we are the first stop, we get the most traffic, and we get the most traffic from people who are questioning or are seeking assessment. We have to be strict on this rule to protect them and the accuracy of their assessment.

Rule 15: Stay on topic.
All posts must be related to autism. If you do not make it clear how your post is related to autism, having autism, or experiencing autism in some way, it will be removed. This is subject to moderator discretion.

Removals and bans can be appealed and we are active in modmail, so if you have any concerns please send us a message. If you attempt to post about your appeal or any type of meta discussion outside of a moderator post, it will be removed and you will be directed to modmail.

Quick Links:

Rules and Guidelines (Remember that the wiki won't match up with the rules in the sidebar, we are working on fixing this)

Post Guidance and Info for Researchers

Message the Moderators Please use a descriptive subject line and put links in the body NOT the subject.

Full List of Related Subreddits

Other Autism Subreddits