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As discussed before, transparency, community, and openness have become the most important factors for charities to consider when it comes to reaching audiences. By creating a sense of community, they can reach out to individuals and include more personal experiences to enhance not only the understanding of how whatever the charity stands for affects individuals, but also creating a welcoming environment. I interviewed several people who live with ASD, and it created an incredibly insightful understanding of not just how they feel about ASD charities, which was mostly negative, but also how the media has affected their lives because of misinformation and misrepresentation.
In the past number of years, there has been turbulence in the trust of charities, but as of 2021, it is on the rise. Without large scandals plaguing the news, trust in charities increases and, in the UK, 6.4 people out of 10 would trust charities and their endeavors. The covid pandemic seems to have affected how we interact with and welcome charities, but there is yet to be a lot of research behind this.
With this in mind, it is an important time for charities to focus on matters that the community wishes them to, but also to right past wrongs including the misinformation spread by the media about ASD. I've spoken about many things during this journey, and it all culminates into asking the charity sector to do better. There are many charities to claim to speak for those with ASD, including Autism Speaks, but as the interviews I did with those in the ASD community showed me, as well as my own research, they do not represent the whole community, and in fact in some cases damage the image and understanding of those with ASD.
A positive move to changing our understanding of ASD charities and recognising the wrongdoings of such charities can only come from public support, which this project may hopefully bring. Thank you for joining me on this journey so far, hopefully it has served to help educate and bring awareness to some of the concerns raised not only from my research into ASD in the media, but also from the community itself.