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Argument, Think Autism Melbourne 2026
Awareness asks very little of anyone, Judy Tang told Think Autism Melbourne
In short
Opening the conference in 2026, Dr Judy Tang set awareness, acceptance and pride against each other, then showed how a narrow clinical picture leaves autistic people from other cultures unseen.
Read it instead, 5 minutesThe transcript
The story
Awareness is the cheapest thing a society can offer autistic people, Dr Judy Tang argued when she opened Think Autism Melbourne at Australian Catholic University in Fitzroy on 30 May 2026. “It’s a ribbon on a lanyard,” she said, a poster in a school corridor, a corporate social media post in April during autism awareness month. A person could be aware of autism, she told the room, and still cross the street on seeing an autistic adult stimming in public.
Australian survey research measured the gap she described eight years earlier. In May 2018, Amaze, which describes itself as the peak body for autistic people and their families in Victoria, released research it had commissioned from the Social Research Centre at the Australian National University and the Centre for Health and Social Research at Australian Catholic University. It found that 98 per cent of Australians had heard of autism, but only 29 per cent said they knew how to support an autistic person, and only 4 per cent of autistic people and families believed people in the community knew how to support them.
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Sources the story draws on
- Awareness and understanding of autism (opens in a new tab), Amaze
- General Understanding Fast Facts (opens in a new tab), Amaze (describes itself as the peak body for autistic people and their families in Victoria)
- What is the Male-to-Female Ratio in Autism Spectrum Disorder? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (opens in a new tab), Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Loomes, Hull and Mandy); accepted manuscript in UCL Discovery
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