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Policy call, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
Autistic entrepreneurship was already in government plans, with no money behind it
In short
At the first Autistic Pride Day Symposium in June 2023, a panellist said policy already named autistic entrepreneurship and the work now was lobbying for programs and funding behind it.
Read it instead, 5 minutesThe transcript
The story
The first panellist at the first Autistic Pride Day Symposium argued that autistic entrepreneurship was already written into policy and no longer needed to be argued for. What it lacked, the panellist told the Melbourne audience on 18 June 2023, was the money and programs to make those commitments do anything.
Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session, had opened it by calling that panellist the fairy godmother of the subject and asking whether autistic was the new black. The answer was that there was an increasing recognition of the entrepreneurial ability of autistic and neurodivergent people. The panellist had arrived back from the United Kingdom the night before, after catching up with Rob Edwards, described as the chief executive of the Neurodiversity and Entrepreneurship Association. In the panellist’s account the interest there had taken off, and he was talking to banks, among others, about supporting autistic entrepreneurs.
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Sources the story draws on
- Victorian autism plan (opens in a new tab), Victorian Government, Department of Health and Human Services
- Senate Select Committee on Autism Report on services, support and life outcomes for Autistic Australians (opens in a new tab), Autism CRC
- South Australia makes history with introduction of autism minister (opens in a new tab), The New Daily (AAP)
- Victorian autism plan: 2023 refresh, summary (opens in a new tab), State of Victoria (Department of Families, Fairness and Housing)
- National Autism Strategy overview (opens in a new tab), Amaze
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