But for some autistic people looking you in the eye is a really hard thing to do. Talking to a stranger can also be difficult.

In this 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 café scene autistic actor Ryan New sensitively shows how crushing it feels when someone talks over you, or about you.

Amaze’s research into the experiences of autistic Australians highlights the barriers to employment.

Like most Australians, most autistic adults would like to be in paid employment.

If you take the time to read it, and think about it, and act on it, and share it, we can make the world a little bit better.

Because little changes to our behaviour can make a big difference to an autistic person, who can’t change.

So said Simon Sinek in his famous TED Talk (48 million views and counting).

Sinek was talking about leadership. But he could just as well have been talking about government and how it communicates.

When 59% of Australians access social media daily, we’d be mad to think that Town Hall meetings are the only way to engage.

Below-The-Line is more targeted, more niche, and more personalised. Traditionally it involved direct mail, point of sale promotions, public relations and events. Now it also employs digital techniques like search engine marketing and social media retargeting.

Historically, most government communication activity has been ‘above the line’. We make announcements, we publish information. We push it out to as wide an audience as possible with little segmentation or targeting.