Autistic Pride Day becomes a year-round platform today, with the launch of a new global portal, a new learning platform, and The Autistic Standard.
Originally created on 18 June 2005 by autistic-led advocacy group Aspies for Freedom, Autistic Pride Day was built as a day for autistic people to define themselves on their own terms. For nearly two decades, it existed primarily as an online and community-led movement observed around the world.
In 2023, Australian social enterprise Just Gold expanded the campaign into a global initiative. Since then, the campaign has operated across three annual themes: Everyday Autistic in 2023, Taking Off the Mask in 2024, and Unapologetically Autistic in 2025. Today, the toolkit and campaign infrastructure are used by more than 900 organisations and individuals across 22 countries.
For 2026, the campaign evolves again under the theme Autism Is Trending, shifting from a single-day campaign into a year-round platform focused on practical systems change.
Three major initiatives launch today.
The first is a new digital home at autisticprideday.org, bringing together campaign resources, autistic-led writing, educational content, and implementation frameworks.The second is Aurum Learn, a new learning platform delivering accessible micro-courses designed for workplaces, educators, governments, services, and the broader community. The platform has been built to move autistic inclusion beyond statements and awareness campaigns into practical implementation.
The third is The Autistic Standard, a behavioural safety and inclusion framework designed for workplaces, schools, services, events, governments, and public environments.
The framework includes 40 modules across six tiers, alongside three high-risk protocols designed for situations requiring immediate behavioural guidance.
The community tier and all three protocols are available free of charge in perpetuity.
The Autistic Standard is built around five core principles: identity-first language, unconditional autonomy, presumption of competence, proactive access, and protected self-regulation.
According to the platform creators, the framework was developed to address the growing gap between public commitments to autistic inclusion and the lived experiences of autistic people navigating systems that remain inaccessible in practice.
The framework is underpinned by an intersectionality model developed by Just Gold and Myriad Global, now operating together under Aurum Foundation. The same framework has also informed the Australian Sports Commission’s published Intersectionality Roadmap addressing governance and leadership inequality in sport.
The platform’s principal author is Kyriakos Gold, Founder and CEO of Just Gold and Chair of Aurum Foundation. Clinical oversight across the resources has been led by Aurum Foundation Directors Dr Judy Tang, Clinical Neuropsychologist and Victorian Multicultural Commissioner. Organisational and systems expertise has been led by Georgia Prattis, Principal Consultant at Myriad Global.
Aurum Foundation an ACNC-registered charity, operates the Autistic Pride Day platform in Australia, while Just Gold maintains the framework intellectual property and platform infrastructure.
The launch also coincides with the continued expansion of Think Autism, the national conference platform for the autistic community in Australia. The next major event will take place on 30 May 2026 at Australian Catholic University in Fitzroy, Melbourne, bringing together autistic leaders, clinicians, educators, employers, and policymakers.
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/think-autism-2026
Autistic Pride Day 2026 will take place globally on 18 June.
“The theme was not chosen. It was heard.”
For more information, visit autisticprideday.org.
