Autism survey: It's not me, it's you

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Most Australians have heard of autism but less than a third of people know how to support an autistic person, researchers have revealed.

A study by Victoria's peak body for autistic people has found there is widespread awareness of the condition that affects more than one in 100 people, yet only 29 per cent of people believe they know how to support an autistic person.
When researchers asked the same question of autistic people, only four per cent of them believed people in the community knew how to support them.

The figures, released by Amaze on Monday, showed more than half of the 57 autistic people surveyed felt socially isolated and 42 per cent said they sometimes felt unable to leave the house because they were worried about people behaving negatively towards them.

"Autistic people tell us it's not their autism that disables them, it's the reactions of the other people in the community," Amaze CEO Fiona Sharkie told AAP