What is Autism? Autism is a developmental condition that affects the way a person communicates, interacts and processes information. Some people will have more subtle difficulties, where others will have complex needs requiring more intensive support. Whilst autism can result in a whole range of challenges, people on the spectrum also have potential, skills abilities and talents. 

To raise awareness of autism and demonstrate the complex nature of the condition, we teamed up with David a talented young illustrator who has Asperger's Syndrome to create an animated interactive resource, www.understandautism.org. This resource allows for the public to learn more about the condition in a fun and accessible way. 

Now a year on, and with support from talented individuals with autism at Project Ability, we have transformed our animated resource into a short film, bringing to life the characters of Sam, Lisa, Ruby and Matt.

Max McIlmunn was one of the individuals who worked closely on this project for us. We caught up with him to find out how he found working on the film:

"Working on the What is Autism? animation has been great. We were fortunate enough to have access to the original art assets used in creating the website, which made it easy to adapt them for animation without compromising the original art style. It was pretty terrific working with the characters too. They've got a really cute style which really comes to life when put into motion, and it was a lot of fun working with them. On top of that, it was nice to just be working on a piece about autism that didn't put a stigmatic or scary spin on the whole thing. As someone living with autism myself, it often seems like there's a lot of misinformation about the subject out there, and it feels good making a contribution to readdress that a bit.”

Max and the rest of the team have done a fantastic job of creating our animated film. Take some time to understand autism by watching and sharing it this Autism Awareness Month.  

https://youtu.be/K7JbMEyPxHs

Visit our interactive resource, Understand Autism