Jessica Hinchliffe

Clay Lewis spent two years trying to find part-time work before he decided to start his own business, one that's now so successful he's had to hire extra staff.

"I was trying to get a job at a fast food restaurant but I wasn't successful," the 16-year-old with autism said.

So after some local market research and number crunching, Clay opened a bin-cleaning business with his mother Laura's help.

This is a snippet from my book, All Across the Spectrum, that you can pre-order here.

CARLY CASSELLA

Putting yourself in another person's shoes is never easy, and for those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the practice is thought to be especially challenging.

Yolanda Redrup

The company has filled a variety of roles in fields such as software engineering and cyber security, which the bank's executive general manager of technology and transformation, Andy Weir, said people on the autism spectrum often had a natural aptitude for.

The father of a young child filmed riding on a car’s roof rack in Perth’s suburbs says the four-year-old is autistic and any parent would understand how difficult children can sometimes be to control.

Police today charged a 36-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, with dangerous driving over the incident.

Shannon Hampton

A senior psychologist at a prestigious Perth school has been fined $2000 for assaulting a 12-year-old autistic boy by throwing a cup of water at him.

But a magistrate today acquitted Agni Angelkovska, 50, of using the boy’s hands to slap himself in the face during a “protracted” struggle at Christ Church Grammar School in November 2014.

During a three-day trial earlier this month, the court was told the boy had to be carried by four staff members at the private school to a sensory room after he had a “meltdown”.

Anita Beaumont

THE “exhaustive” process of contesting a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan can eventually work, but only for those who are willing to wait, and able to fight, Hunter families say.

Anna Noon, of Speers Point, said it took 14 months to go through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) after her son’s plan was slashed by more than 70 per cent without warning.

Her son, Zach, became an NDIS participant during the trial of the scheme in the Hunter.

Briana Shepherd

When Vanessa McKenzie attended school drop-off, along with the usual hazards of peak-hour traffic and stressed parents, she had to negotiate a clearer danger — her son Blake would bolt with no warning.