Who is left out?

Autistic communities sometimes leave some people out. People of color can get left out. Women, transgender, and non-binary people can get left out. Poor people might not be able to afford to come. People with other disabilities might get left out, too.

Sometimes people are left out on purpose. For example:

Bob runs a group for autistic people. He says the group is only for “high-functioning” people, so autistic people with intellectual disabilities get left out. This is bad!

But groups can also leave people out by accident. For example:

May runs a group for autistic people. She says the group is for all autistic people, but at the group, most of the people are in college. They talk using long, hard words, and get mad when people ask them to use shorter words. Autistic people with intellectual disabilities stop coming to the group. May doesn’t want to leave people out, but her group isn’t accessible for everyone.

There are also problems in society that make some autistic people get left out. These problems happened before Bob or May started their groups, but they are still problems.

Being left out happens for a lot of reasons. Here are some: