Do you tell people?

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I don't say anything.
People who know what autism is will most certainly recognise it in me.
People who don't know have no use of the information.

When people ask about my autistic traits/behaviours, I usually say, "I don't know." or "I'm just that way."

Who knows, they probably suspect something already when they ask me. If they really care about it and want to know, they'll ask again and again. In that case, I'll tell them casually. Nobody really makes a big deal out of it. Even if they do, everything is back to normal very soon.

And if I absolutely need to, I'll tell someone.

But I don't just randomly tell people.

I've decided not to tell anyone on the outside about having ASD who doesn't directly ask me, but I think it'd be a rare instance if it occurred. If it did happen I wouldn't lie about it though, even if they seemed negative.
I read somewhere the account of this guy with aspergers who's company would send him off to meet potential business clients, he was in one of these meetings alone with a client who suddenly asked if he had aspergers, so he said yes. There was no accusation in the question and the client actually reassured him about this. It was similarly touching and quite scary to read this due to my own paranoia over my behaviour around others that strangers might be picking up on, but at the same time at least it shows not everyone out there has a negative opinion.

I have started to, because I have to. I had a pretty severe breakdown/burnout a few years ago and lost the ability to do a lot of things for almost a year (speak, focus on anything but special interest, care for myself, etc) and I have to be careful about putting myself in a situation that would cause that to happen again.
The rehabilitation therapist told me I have to "own it," and not to get myself into a situation where I, or anyone else, expects me to be neurotypical, as trying so hard to be just minimally normal was what overloaded me and caused it.
I wear a medical ID these days, as a form of communication. People need to understand this about me straight off.

I've considered it before, mainly because it can be used as an excuse, and also because I like to get to know others. Now in retrospect, I think would actually be a terrible idea, and people will just treat you based on the stereotype; they will ostracize you as a weirdo and talk to you like you cannot understand speech. The only people I have considered telling are my parents, but I sort of fear they will spread it to the rest of the family; it's kind of sad to think I have to keep my condition secret from the people who essentially gave it to me through no fault of their own; although my parents aren't autists themselves, I can see a few traits in them, a so-called autistic phenotype.

If nobody speaks for themselves, then who speaks for all of us? Temple Grandin, John Elder Robison and Alex Plank can't do it all while we sit back, and wait for the pennies from heaven.

More people will speak out when they are in a better position to speak out.

Because of economic necessity, many people are reluctant to speak out.

Even though I'm a valued worker, and have been at my job 36 1/2 years, I still find there is some risk in telling people about my autistic history--and I don't believe it would be useful for advocacy in general should I do so.

Obviously, it takes courage to change things. Look at Martin Luther King.

I believe advocacy has to be done on the grass roots level--and I also believe one has to compromise with/accommodate NT's, rather than be in opposition to them. Yes, NT's frequently don't understand autism and autistics---but I advocate gently educating them, rather than browbeating them.

I know browbeating something down my throat wouldn't work for me. It wouldn't persuade me to change my thought-pattern.

I informed my GF that I was researching and there would be more to follow. A few days later after reading everything I could get my hands on and taking test to validate - she could not accept my self diagnosis and was in denial. As I remove some of my filters and mechanisms for "passing", my communication towards her is very straight forward and describes what I am going through and experiencing, with no regard for how she experiences.

Probably fGF now.

I told a very good friend who lives two states away - provided her with links to one of the online tests and she took it herself. She took it upon herself to seek out a basic understanding of Autism and then took the online test to discover she was NT. I respect her approach as she went the distance to seek an understanding rather than just blow off my message.

After the conversation with my GF, I sent a text to my landlord asking if I could visit. As we started a conversation it turns out the we both have had our DNA sequenced over the holidays, lots to share as that discovery is never ending. I told her how I came about my self diagnosis and she asked me directly if I had witnessed any traits of Autism in the behavior of her grown children - indirectly accepting me as an autistic and wanting to leverage my experience being applied to her world, a kind of compliment actually.

Most landlords wouldn't be as enlightened as your landlord.

How did you know your landlord would be so enlightened?

I would count myself fortunate to have such a person as your landlord.