Tim's Story

Tim Thompson is a musician, singer and comedian who happens to be on the autism spectrum. He thinks of his autism as a superpower and enjoys the fact that he isn’t like everyone else. When we sat down and chatted with Tim, he explained that not many people know or understand autism. He believes people adopt a one-size-fits all approach, but everyone is different – it’s called a spectrum for a reason.

When talking about how support services like Aspire can work with autistic people, Tim provided a few tips. For starters, when people work with autistic people they shouldn’t consider themselves an authority figure. They should work with the autistic person, rather than telling them what to do. Similarly, if a support worker sits on the couch all day and watches an autistic person go about their day, it’s not helpful for anyone – the autistic person isn’t getting the support they need to live their life, and the support worker isn’t doing their job. Tim expressed his frustration with how some people talk to him in a patronising way and ‘baby’ him. He just wants to sit down with someone and feel like he’s hanging out with a mate.