The mother of a teenager fighting to protect his life-saving dialysis treatment says medics are using his autism against him. William Verden, 16, faces being told he cannot have the dialysis treatment he needs to keep him alive. Mum Ami...

A group of former support workers have denied abusing people with autism and learning disabilities. The nine support workers were secretly filmed at Whorlton Hall, in County Durham, for a BBC Panorama documentary. Footage appeared to show them taunting and...

Families have told of the trauma their autistic children suffered at the hands of a teacher convicted of abusing them. Linda McCall was found guilty in July of assaulting five pupils aged between five and seven years old. The offences...

People with autism and learning disabilities are “systematically excluded” from research, say scientists. Dr Audrey Thurm is a director at the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). She says figures show that between 31 per cent and 50 per...

The number of people with autism and learning disabilities held in long-term segregation has risen by more than 29 per cent in two years. The figures emerged from a House of Lords debate about plans to get people with autism...

Researchers are developing a nasal spray for coronavirus that could protect autistic people with needle phobia. Scientists from biotech firm pHOXBIO put the spray through a trial that showed it reduced coronavirus disease (Covid-19) by 63 per cent. People with...

Councils are telling parents they will no longer specify one-to-one support in an education, health and care plan (EHCP), says a charity. SOS SEN says councils are telling families they they will instead specify one-to-one support in “separate documents”. But...

Trials on a water-retention drug hailed as a promising autism treatment have been halted. Bumetanide was going through two stage three trials when researchers abandoned the trials. Results showed it performs no better than a placebo, or sugar pill, at...

The Local Government Ombudsman has pushed a council into overturning its refusal to pay for college transport. Staffordshire County Council had refused to pay to get an autistic teenager to her college 25 miles away. The council had not given...

The UK’s biggest autism charity has been criticised for saying the condition should not be “lessened”. The National Autistic Society (NAS) made the comment in response to research on a parent-coaching technique. The technique aims to reduce autism diagnoses. Tim...