27/12/2025
Shared via PANDA
"Only 23.5% of autistic people in a new multi-country survey felt society actually accepts them as autistic - less than one in four.
What the article shows
- The Forbes piece reports on a survey of 306 autistic adults across eight countries, looking at how accepted they feel in everyday life.
- Autistic participants in Japan and Belgium reported the lowest levels of societal acceptance, while those in Canada, the UK and South Africa reported somewhat higher, but still far from good, levels.
Acceptance is not the same as awareness
- Most of these countries have autism “awareness” campaigns, yet the study still found that the majority of autistic respondents feel misunderstood, stigmatised or pressured to “mask” in order to be tolerated.
- That gap between being “aware” we exist and actually making space for autistic ways of thinking, communicating and living is where harm happens, in schools, workplaces, healthcare, immigration systems and families.
Why this matters for all of us
- When a society is hostile or indifferent, autistic people pay the price in mental health, employment, safety and basic dignity; but everyone loses out on our skills, insight and creativity too.
- The survey numbers are a mirror: they tell us less about autistic “deficits” and more about whether our countries are willing to question ableist norms and redesign systems around human diversity.
Questions to sit with
- If fewer than one in four autistic people feel accepted, what does that say about our schools, workplaces, benefits systems and border policies?
- In the UK and elsewhere, are we genuinely moving toward acceptance, or just better at PR while autistic people are still fighting for basic accommodations and respect?
A gentle call to action
- If you are autistic: your way of being in the world is valid, even if your country’s culture has not caught up yet.
- If you are non-autistic: read autistic-led work, believe what autistic people say about their lives, challenge ableist comments, and push your institutions, from schools to employers to governments, to move beyond awareness days into real structural change.
If you read the Forbes article, notice which countries are called “more accepting” and if you know autistic people in those countries then ask them whether that matches their reality.
Numbers are a starting point; lived experience has to finish the story.
A new survey of 306 autistic individuals residing in eight countries found that participants from Japan and Belgium experienced the lowest levels of societal acceptance.
