40 Super Important Things People With Autism Wish You Realized 

1. Just because we’re autistic doesn’t mean we want special treatment, it just means that we miss some social queues and can be a bit slow to pick up the mood of a room. For example my autism manifests in an inability to tell emotions, I either think people are being aggressive or joking unless I know explicitly the attitude they are giving. Friends are easy because I get to know them and I can tell their tone 90% of the time, but people I’ve met for the first time, I’ll either make good friends with them because I think they’re joking or I’ll get in an argument with them because I think they’re being aggressive.

2. Family and friends of people on the spectrum: schedules are important. We are more than happy to attend your thing, spend time with you, help you do the thing, etc. But you have to give us a few days advance warning. Odds are, on the day of, we will have our entire day planned out in our head, and suddenly dropping any large time-consuming event into the middle of those plans can cause a system crash. Also, parents? If stops must be made on the way home from… anywhere, a little head’s up would be greatly appreciated.