Accessibility Playbook Excerpt: Eight Myths about Autism

April is Autism Acceptance Month! To celebrate, we’re sharing an excerpt from the Accessibility Playbook from Pete Wharmby, author of “Untypical: How the World Isn’t Built for Autistic People and What We Should All Do About It.” Wharmby’s writing illuminates how everyday assumptions—from customer‑service scripts to sensory environments—can either invite or exclude guests. The eight myths below are a concise, shareable primer for destination leaders and frontline teams. We’ve preserved the author’s original wording, including identity‑first language, so you can copy and paste this directly into staff briefings, partner toolkits, and training decks.

Eight Myths about Autism by Peter Wharmby

1. Autistic people don’t feel empathy. The majority of us feel enormous amounts of empathy, even for non-living things, and especially for animals.
2. Autistic people can’t make eye contact. Some of us don’t seem to mind it at all, whilst the many of us who hate it can force ourselves to when we feel its necessary.
3. Autistic males are far more common than autistic females. The ratio is rapidly shifting to being more balanced as diagnostic understanding improves.
4. Autistic people don’t have a sense of humor. I mean, some of us don’t, and some of us have what may be seen as a ‘different’ sense of humor, but there are a lot of funny autistic people out there, including those who do comedy professionally.
5. Autistic people have learning disabilities. In fact a surprisingly low percentage of autistic people have co-occurring learning disabilities. However, people with learning disabilities are much more likely to be autistic too.
6. Autistic people are all antisocial. Many of us may be asocial from trauma associated with social interaction, but it seems many of us are quite gregarious and even extroverted.
7. Autistic people are all STEM subject specialists. Though plenty are, there are many of us who have skills, jobs and qualifications in the humanities, arts and other fields.
8. Autistic people are all super-gifted in some way. Though some of us might be skilled in certain areas, and some of us might have excellent memories, plenty of us are perfectly average.