The rights of persons with autism must be taken into account in efforts to address the COVID-19 coronavirus: “a public health crisis unlike any other in our lifetimes”, the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday.

António Guterres’s appeal came in his message for World Autism Awareness Day, observed annually on 2 April.

Read more about COVID-19 should not herald rollback in rights for people with autism: UN chief

Tita Smith

An Australian dad is pleading for help after his son was taken by child protection services because his autism was mistaken as a sign of psychological abuse.

Conrad and Katya den Hertog lost their son Martin, now seven, to Dutch authorities during a night-time raid of their home in Amsterdam in February 2018.

Read more about Australian dad begs to have his son returned after child agencies put him in a home when they mistook his autism for signs of abuse

Media Release

People with disability who receive the Disability Support Pension (DSP) urgently need access to the increased Coronavirus Supplement of $550 per fortnight, consistent with the Jobseeker Payment and other payments recently announced.

People with disability who are in receipt of DSP are experiencing and facing additional, unforeseen costs in this time of crisis, which is causing significant levels of distress and anxiety, and only serving to further entrench DSP recipients into poverty.

Read more about Increase Disability Support Pension now to deal with COVID-19

Following a series of scandals in the United Kingdom over people with autism being held against their will and mistreated in hospitals, a watchdog group has issued a legal challenge to the government.

The incidents highlight that the entire system of care for people on the spectrum is in need of an overhaul, the challengers say.

Read more about U.K. government faces lawsuit over mistreatment of autistic people

People looking for information about people with disability and COVID-19 can go to these websites:

Priority home delivery services for NDIS participants.

Read more about Disabilty and COVID-19

Indiana Lysaght

Demeaning, degrading and disgusting is how a Kalgoorlie-Boulder mother has described her recent experience with Centrelink.

Despite a lifetime with a diagnosed disability, Jo Russell said she had to parade her daughter “like a monkey” during a disability support application.

Megan Russell was diagnosed with autism and an intellectual disability when she was two years old, which has left her in the full-time care of her mother

Read more about Kalgoorlie-Boulder mother forced to ‘parade’ daughter for disability support application

Annah Fromberg

One month into the school year, Melinda Walkden's two children, who have autism, are yet to start primary school.

Key points

Melinda Walkden was issued with a trespass order in 2018 over claims she abused her daughter's teachers
Her autistic daughter had been put in an open cardboard box enclosure in her classroom in 2017
The Education Department wants to transfer her two children to a new school but won't lift the trespass order

Read more about Tasmanian mother of children with autism faces continuing ban from school grounds

Jae says being autistic you learn to cope with environments but this often needed greater understanding. Picture: Lachlan Bence

Melanie Whelan

THERE are bad days when Jae cannot leave the house because the prospect of navigating changing public transport to get to Melbourne is too much. Not to mention the bright, fluorescent lights in VLine carriages.

Jae is among the 40 per cent of austistic Australians who say they sometimes do not leave the house due to the prospect of being subject to discriminatory behaviour.

Read more about Jae says 'don't judge, be curious' when you meet an autistic person

CONSTRUCTION begins this week for a $3.5 million world-class autism hub in Garran.

The sod turning ceremony for the AEIOU Garran Centre for Autism will be held tomorrow (February 26) to mark the beginning of construction for the early intervention facility supported, through capital funding, by the John James Foundation.

The centre will be the first of its kind in Canberra and will provide early intervention for about 40 children per year. It will also have the capacity for research and training.