Untypical: How the world isn’t built for autistic people and what we should all do about it

by Pete Wharmby

As far as we can tell, autism is primarily a genetic thing, and is therefore passed down from parent to child. Many autistic people, upon being diagnosed, report that they then realise how autistic their own parent or parents so obviously are. Similarly, when children are diagnosed, often at the behest of their school, it’s very common for one or both of their parents to realise that they themselves have a lot in common and are autistic too (this is so commonplace that I seriously believe that any time a child is diagnosed as autistic, their parents should automatically be invited for a diagnosis themselves, just to speed up the process a little).