My bit of the email I sent to my MP

Because we have communication problems, it's hard for those of us on the autism spectrum to explain to other people what is difficult. We are SO used to somehow 'coping' and 'getting by' that we can't express what problems we have. Or we have given up trying because people misunderstand so often.

If my native language was Urdu, or Welsh or Hindi or Polish or Hebrew, there would be a form, written in my native language, to fill in. I could get it in LARGE PRINT or braille, or on a talking tape. We ought, really, to be recognised as racially different as that is very close to reality. We are supposed to speak the same language but you don't understand us. It is us, with our desperately frustrating communication difficulties, who have to learn to speak to you.

And do not be deceived by how I have articulated this message. I write much better than I speak. It's difficult to stammer in written words or to have thoughts suddenly fall in to a void. Nobody can interrupt when I write. If I can't think of the words, it does not matter how long it takes, nobody is there to get impatient.

The fact is, nobody is there. Anyone with autism will tell you the same. Nobody is there.