Australia’s first National Autism Strategy

I’ve been awaiting the launch of Australia’s National Autism Strategy for quite some time - since its creation was recommended by the Senate Select Committee on Autism in their 2022 report Services, support and life outcomes for autistic Australians. The Committee's report was a sobering wake up call, confirming what I and many other autistic people already knew to be true: life outcomes for autistic Australians were “unacceptably poor” - with Autistic Australians facing significantly reduced life expectancy, higher mortality rates, and ongoing issues such as unemployment, education inequality and significant social isolation.

Now: after significant research, co-design and consultation - Australia has its first National Autism Strategy. The strategy’s vision is to create a “safe and inclusive society, where all Autistic individuals are empowered to thrive”. It’s accompanied by the First Action Plan (2025-2026), and represents a crucial commitment to addressing inequities faced by over 290,000 Autistic Australians.

Neurodiversity-Affirming lens

The strategy promotes a neurodiversity-affirming approach. But what does this mean? It’s kind of like the social model of disability.

Neurodiversity refers to the idea that variations in the way the brain processes and interprets information (such as those seen in Autism) are part of the natural diversity of human beings. An individual may be referred to as neurodivergent if their brain processes and interprets information differently from what society expects; whereas someone whose brain processing matches societal expectations would be called neurotypical. Therefore, a neurodiversity-affirming approach, as defined in the Strategy, “seeks to promote safety, understanding, acceptance and appreciation of neurodiversity.”

The strategy recognises the barriers that autistic people face in a neurotypical world. It takes the position that rather than trying to teach Autistic people to “fit in”, instead “the need for change sits with society as a whole.”

What’s in the strategy?

Key commitments and outcome areas

The Strategy identifies four key outcome areas in which autistic people face systemic barriers and challenges and commits to action in these areas. Addressing these outcome areas is fundamental to improving the wellbeing of Autistic Australians and improving their quality of life.

Social Inclusion: Ensuring all autistic people have equal opportunity to participate in society and connect with others. Including by:
1. Fostering cultural change, attitude change and increased understanding.
2. Creation of sensory-friendly spaces.
3. Increasing opportunities for peer support.
Economic Inclusion: Ensuring equitable access to education, employment and financial security. Including by:
1. Expanding opportunities for meaningful employment, including self-employment, entrepreneurship and social enterprises.
2. Support for employers of autistic people
3. Support for post-school transitions.
Diagnosis, Services, and Supports: Improving access to neurodiversity-affirming autism identification/diagnosis and timely access to supports. Including by:
1. Improving the accessibility and timeliness of diagnosis, including in rural areas.
2. Improving the experience of autistic people accessing services both within the NDIS and in mainstream services.
Health and Mental Health: improving the health and mental health of autistic people, through specialised and evidence-based support. This outcome area will be developed through a separate initiative, the Autism Health Roadmap led by the Department of Health and Aged Care.

Priority groups

The strategy has also emphasised the importance of tailoring support approaches to address intersectionality and meet the needs of defined priority groups. These priority groups include:

First Nations Peoples
Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) and Culturally and Racially Marginalized (CARM) People
Women, Girls, and Gender-Diverse People
LGBTQIA+ People
Older People
Children and Young People
People with Very High Support Needs

What happens next?

The First Action Plan 2025-2026 will address the 22 commitments with some immediate actions and by laying foundations for future reforms. The plan will tackle issues like reducing stigma, cultural change, attitude change and the improvement of:

Social connection
Neurodiversity-affirming, inclusive supports
Safety and welfare
Employment and education outcomes
Diagnosis and timely access to services

What does it mean for providers?

Autistic people are the largest group of NDIS participants, representing 37% of people in the Scheme according to data from September 2024. The National Autism Strategy has significant implications for the disability sector, how services are delivered and for NDIS service providers. While the full implementation of the actions is underway – there’s no reason to wait!

Reviewing the strategy shows many opportunities for change in the way services are delivered. Here are a few areas where you can take immediate action:

Explore peer support opportunities
- Peer support can play a vital role in empowering participants and building community. Think about the ways you might be able to facilitate peer support within your service. Are there opportunities for autistic participants to connect with others who share similar experiences, like autistic mentors or peer workers? Are there any peer support, social groups or self-advocacy groups for autistic people near you that you can refer people to?
Training in neurodiversity-affirming approaches
- Consider further training in autism, neurodiversity and neurodiversity-affirming approaches. This can help you identify the barriers in services and how you support people to access the community. A neurodiversity-affirming approach is also well-aligned with person-centred support and the social model of disability.
Healthcare and mental health
- If appropriate to your services and relationship with the participant, speak to them about their health needs, and support they need. It can be helpful to create a list of local health professionals who have an understanding of autism that you can recommend. You might also support people to create documents like Healthcare passports or support plans so their needs are understood by other services.
Take a person-centred approach
- Autism can present in diverse ways from person to person. So learn to understand the person you support , their communication style and how their disability might fluctuate.

While there is a long way to go for meaningful inclusion for autistic people - a National Autism Strategy is a great step toward creating a more inclusive society.