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How the 2026 Autistic Pride Day campaign was built from community responses
In short
At Think Autism Melbourne, Kyriakos Gold explained how the six month ‘Autism is trending’ campaign came out of the previous year’s conference conversations, a survey and expressions of interest, processed with AI and tested with an advisory group.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
The theme for Autistic Pride Day 2026 was drawn from community responses. At the opening of Think Autism Melbourne on 30 May 2026, Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the fireside chat, described how it was put together, and why, without AI, the analysis would have needed two or three full time researchers.
Each year the team prepares a global campaign for 18 June. That means a theme, a digital toolkit so people can produce accessible social media, and narratives for people who want to hold events in their workplaces. We now also have a learning management system, which carries what we call the Autistic Standard. Gold told the audience who had built it. They were Dr Judy Tang, the neuropsychologist who had spoken that morning, a second contributor and Gold himself, with the framework reviewed by Naomi, who is also a health practitioner. We offer all of it free, with a commercial structure for businesses and organisations that want to support the initiative.
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Sources the story draws on
- Making the future together: Shaping autism research through meaningful participation (opens in a new tab), Autism (SAGE), vol. 23(4), pp. 943 to 953; Sue Fletcher-Watson, Jon Adams, Kabie Brook, Tony Charman, Laura Crane, James Cusack, Susan Leekam, Damian Milton, Jeremy R Parr and Elizabeth Pellicano
- Using large language models for narrative analysis: a novel application of generative AI (opens in a new tab), Methods in Psychology, vol. 12, article 100183; Sarah Jenner, Dimitris Raidos, Emma Anderson, Stella Fleetwood, Ben Ainsworth, Kerry Fox, Jana Kreppner and Mary Barker (record on University of Southampton ePrints)
More from Think Autism Melbourne 2026
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- 2 minutes 59 seconds, captioned Indigenous business as a model for autistic enterprise, and why it scaled Dr Sharon Zivkovic At Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, Dr Sharon Zivkovic held up Indigenous business as a model for autistic founders. From the audience, Kath Alexander, formerly in social procurement, said its growth rested on government priority and procurement targets.
- 2 minutes 53 seconds, captioned Running Think Autism without state or federal funding Kyriakos Gold At Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, Kyriakos Gold set out how the conference was paid for without government money. The conversation then turned to philanthropy and how little of it reaches disability.
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2 minutes 21 seconds, captioned The case that every autistic owned business is a social enterprise Roo Harris At Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, a panellist defined autistic enterprise by its social mission, and Roo Harris called entrepreneurship the ultimate accommodation. Both were questioning a model that leaves autistic people waiting on employers. -
3 minutes 7 seconds, captioned Autistic burnout is different from tiredness, and a holiday does not fix it Anita Aherne, Hannah Badenhop and 1 more Opening a Think Autism Melbourne panel in 2026, Anita Aherne said workplaces still had no clear definition of autistic burnout. The panellists described what it is and why rest alone does not end it.