Using social media with people on the autistic spectrum

Over the last two years I had the privilege of looking after an online community for those who are affected by autism. Talk about Autism is an online community for people on the autistic spectrum, for parents and carers, families, friends, specialists, teachers, and all those who have an interest in autism. In addition to providing emotional and social support, the focus is on equipping people with the tools and information they need to achieve their goals, be it for a parent toilet training their autistic child, a group of people campaigning for better services in their local area, or a person with autism looking for job interview advice. Now that the community has successfully transitioned to a new community manager, I’ve had some time to think about and absorb my experiences interacting online with people on the autistic spectrum. I hope these 5 observations may be helpful to some of you:
 
1.   One person with autism is one person with autism. It’s a simple fact, and it’s something that as community managers we should always hold in our minds when we’re being impartial facilitators: one person is one person, and their experiences don’t reflect the needs of everyone. Likewise, the common stereotypes and assumptions about people with autism will not apply to everyone on the spectrum.

2.    I never changed or modified the way I speak. I always spoke to people with autism exactly as I would have spoken to anyone. Emoticons included. I felt that by changing my mannerisms, I might unintentionally cause offense. I decided just to be myself – and if ever I came across wrong, I was asked to explain myself differently and that worked well.

3.    Safety is of the highest importance. Adults with autism are sometimes ‘vulnerable adults’ and communities have a duty of care to ensure that they are protected. All posts need to be moderated in a timely manner, and someone needs to be keeping a careful eye out for bullying. And special care needs to be taken with posts which look quite useful, but are really spam. A couple of my contacts followed links, only to be duped into giving money to a bogus company (on Facebook, but still good to watch out for this in your on-site community).

4.    Community Guidelines aren’t black and white, and the ‘greynesses’ can be confusing to some people with autism. Some of my Community Champions experienced frustration when they would see that I had made an exception to one of the rules. It was challenging to explain that the guidelines are not hard, fast rules to apply to every person in all situations, and that a moderator will work to find the best solution to a situation based on the individual scenario.

5.    Finally, what I heard most commonly from people on the spectrum is that online communication was fairly difficult at first, but once figured out…really ‘levelled the playing field’. In the words of one of my community members, “…out there in the real world where none of you get to see me I'm a slightly clumsy geeky quiet guy with a few close friends. Here I am a keyboard warrior; I can speak clearly and strongly here and I am surrounded by wise and caring people who are willing to listen to me.”