All about us
WHAT IS AUTISM UNDERSTOOD?
Simply put, Autism Understood is a website about autism, for autistic young people.
The website was created by Spectrum Gaming, a registered charity. Spectrum Gaming is a community for autistic young people which has three main intended outcomes:
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Building friendships: We wanted to create a community where autistic young people feel comfortable and can make strong friendships in a safe way. Our main provision is our online community, that anyone from across the UK can access. We also run meet ups for young people who live in the Greater Manchester area.
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Increasing Self-Acceptance: We want to make sure as many autistic people as possible are able to accept their differences and live the happiest lives they can.
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Advocacy – We aim to create a movement that will have a positive influence on society through advocacy, and enable strategic change to ensure the needs of autistic young people are met across the UK.
WHY DID WE CREATE AUTISM UNDERSTOOD?
When young people are told they are autistic, they are rarely told what this actually means. Professionals and parents are invited to courses and have tons of resources aimed at them, but what about the person who receives the diagnosis? This makes no sense to us.
There is also a lot of misinformation about autism online, so we wanted to make sure there is a place where young people can find reputable information about autism.
It was agreed that information for autistic young people is a huge gap in strategic groups through the Greater Manchester Autis Consortium. As a result, Manchester Foundation Trust CAMHS and the Greater Manchester Autism Hub provided financial support to help make this website possible.
HOW DID WE CREATE THE WEBSITE?
- Autistic young people, adults, parents and professionals wrote content on each of the topics listed on the website.
- Each article was reviewed by a team of autistic young people and autistic adults from Spectrum Gaming, to check all content was affirming and could be understood by young people.
- The page was uploaded – and we added images and memes (where applicable) to finish it off.