"Autistic people have the right to live their lives with dignity."

Absolutely and categorically no . The autistic community, especially adults, is largely invisible, and our rights are not being respected . An autistic adult who wants to develop their own independent life plan and needs support to do so does not receive it from the public system. It is assumed, for example, that a level 1 or 2 autistic person without intellectual disability will be able to develop completely autonomously and independently, but the reality is that many autistic people, even those at level 1, will need support throughout their lives for their daily activities.

Currently, our specific needs are not recognized, and therefore, there are no specific resources available to us . The public administration considers us to be within the category of mental disorders, when in fact our condition is neurodevelopmental; we are "born and die autistic." And while it is true that some autistic people have comorbid mental health conditions, these are often the result of a hostile and aggressive social system towards autistic individuals.

To begin with, there are hardly any autism specialists in the public healthcare system who provide diagnostic assessments or interventions for adults . Imagine that! These deficiencies are found in every aspect of life. There are no autism specialists in schools either, neither in vocational training programs nor at the university level. An autistic person, for example, can be academically brilliant, even gifted, but then struggle with daily life, become dehydrated from not eating or drinking due to their hyperfocus, struggle to manage their finances, or have difficulty navigating simple bureaucratic procedures. That's why we so strongly advocate for the role of the personal assistant , a professional specializing in autism who can guide them in the different areas of their lives.

Many autistic people live with their parents, but this is a problem we will soon have, because what will happen to all these people who need support when their parents are no longer there?

Not to mention access to the job market . Autistic people often spend years going from one employment agency to another for people with intellectual disabilities or mental disorders, and the few who do end up working often lose their jobs due to a lack of specific accommodations for them.

Many autistic people live with their parents, but this is a major problem we're going to face soon, because what will happen to all these people who need support when their parents are no longer there? Our autistic adults with support needs end up (if they have a place) in a supervised apartment shared with people with mental health conditions or disabilities.

Dr. Amaia Hervás Zúñiga

Psychiatrist. Head of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service

Hospital Universitario Mútua Terrassa

"Only 15% of people with autism live an independent life"

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My wish as a mother is for my daughter Ariadna to be as independent as possible, to have a dignified, high-quality, and excellent life, but I couldn't find any resources for young autistic people without intellectual disabilities, like my daughter, to develop strategies for leading independent lives with the necessary support. So I decided to embark on this project. It was a difficult start. I saw many family associations, but there was a lack of first-person perspectives. What do autistic people think? What do they need?

Ariadna, like many other autistic people, has suffered greatly and has had to endure bullying, aggression, and a very difficult life. She named it New Life, believing that autistic people could have a new life.

We started with a supervised apartment for people with autism without intellectual disabilities, a pioneering program in Spain. And we expanded with the aim of offering resources, programs, and services to promote independent living projects.

Currently, we offer a differential diagnostic assessment service and clinical intervention with professionals specializing in adult autism, and from there, we offer various interventions. We have a comprehensive training program aimed at promoting the autonomy of autistic individuals; we also offer home care for adults living alone and a guidance program, which is a daily telephone call from a professional who assists with daily tasks, and sometimes that is all that is needed.

My daughter has the right to live, to learn, to be independent; I want her to be prepared to be without me, because I won't always be there.

We also have therapeutic spaces for women and for people from the LGBTQ+ community, and we organize gatherings for autistic people , because when an autistic person finds "their tribe," it changes their life. Another function is community awareness, and we have now begun training healthcare professionals in mental health centers, because there are increasingly more autistic people with serious mental disorders (major depression, anxiety disorder, etc.) with a high rate of suicide attempts.

This is a supervised apartment, meaning there aren't professionals present all day, but the key difference is that all interventions are led by professionals specializing in autism . Three very different people with level one or two autism, without intellectual disabilities, live together there and are learning to live and share , something they often find very difficult. Each has a personal assistant who helps them with daily tasks, as well as a psychologist, and they participate in the various services offered by New Life.

We must work with each person to address their individual challenges and strengths. The idea would be to replicate this apartment, but it's very difficult without public funding. For families, it represents a significant financial outlay. And we've started from scratch, because there are hardly any precedents for this type of project in our country.

Her life has changed a lot. She has learned and realized who she is, her strengths and weaknesses . She has learned how to connect and how to disconnect, because she knows she will always need support and that her role models will change.

She has become aware of her potential, she can also recognize when she is not being treated well, and she knows when to ask for help . Now she comes to visit me, her room is tidy, she does her laundry, she's learning to cook, to shop, to do household chores—in short, to manage her own life. Emotionally, she has matured a lot . She is learning to live and to live with others.

Like my daughter, all people with autism have the right to live their own lives, but there aren't enough resources to make that happen. My daughter has the right to live, to learn, to be independent. I want her to be prepared to live without me, because I won't always be there.

We have always been largely invisible and forgotten , but today autistic women are the ones driving the community forward and advocating for it. And I believe that, in part, autism is becoming more widely known thanks to women.

Autistic women tend to be hyper-compliant, hyper-empathetic, hypersensitive, and often brilliant in their profession, but they often suffer abuse and mistreatment in their daily lives.

Autistic women exist, although we often go unnoticed. Many autistic women have received misdiagnoses , such as personality disorders, and have been medicated, which has led to very negative outcomes. There is still significant underdiagnosis, and very few professionals specialize in autism in women. In our association, we have one of the few neuropsychologists specializing in autism, and we have waiting lists of women who, after becoming mothers, have recognized themselves in their autistic daughters, or who have been influenced by the increased awareness of autism in women on social media. These are often highly accommodating, empathetic, and sensitive women, brilliant in their professions, highly creative, many of them gifted, but who have suffered abuse, mistreatment, and significant trauma in their daily lives. This is a very common profile among adult autistic women.

Women with autism, the great forgotten ones

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And there's another important issue: autistic women have serious health problems that are also made invisible: central sensitization syndromes, autoimmune diseases, and rare diseases like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. And this isn't being studied or researched, but it exists. We have many very young women with chronic fatigue syndrome and a terrible quality of life, but because they are autistic, everything is attributed to their condition. Therefore, a triple stigma.