How do people get the money to make these trips abroad?
Some are probably working, or they save, or travel on a budget as students seem to do, with inexpensive travel cards.
As the great majority of people on the Spectrum are on benefit, we can only hope that those with the money to attend these international functions remember how unrepresentative they really are, and make sure to stick up for those less fortunate than themselves.
It would be interesting to know how many of us were on benefits/welfare.
In the US its not easy to get such financial assistance, especially if you appear physically normal, and for all those who are self diagnosed, I would imagine it's virtually impossible.
Its certainly not easy in the UK either, for the same reasons.
Amy, I should have qualified what i wrote by adding "according to the NAS" - but it's the only statistic we have, and sounds realistic to me.
But they didn't say that 90% were on benefits, only that 10% have a full time job.
I think the other 90% vary between getting income support, being supported by parents, students on student loans, those who are married/living with someone and being supported by partner, those working part time, those in assisted housing who are given an allowance, and sadly, some who are on the streets.
This is where having more of a formal organisation for aspies would come in useful, instead of just being a website, (sorry, no disrespect intended Amy and Gareth, AFF is great) because community organisations can tap into community funding, like 'Community Chest' and get funds from local grant awarding bodies.
It's sometimes possible to raise funds as an individual, I think, but the grant making committees prefer to see organisations with committees and members and plans and proposals for how money is spent.
Stella, if you have any support workers, they might know of local projects that might be able to provide funds. Also, another reason why it's better to work with an organisation (be it local or national) is that such funding bodies also prefer to spend their money so they 'get more bang for their buck', i.e. Stella, you might be able to persuade some funding organisation to fund your attendance at a conference or autscape on, say, therapeutic grounds, or because you want to find out more and to become more knowledge about AS, but applications for funding are more likely to be successful when there's more bang, i.e. not just one person benefit from the money spent, but say if you went as a representative from a local group and returned home to your local area and maybe made a presentation, or put some of the knowledge into practice in some way.
There might be funding out there Stella, but it often takes a quite experienced fundraiser to know what pots of money are available and to make an application. That's not to stop anyone else making an application, the application forms are usually quite straightforward and not too complicated or intimidating, it's just knowing where the pots of money are that's the stumbling block.
How do people get the money to make these trips abroad?
Don't you know Ryanair is selling flight tickets from the Continent to London for as little as 1 pound? :razz:
It would be interesting to know how many of us were on benefits/welfare.
In the US its not easy to get such financial assistance, especially if you appear physically normal, and for all those who are self diagnosed, I would imagine it's virtually impossible.
Its certainly not easy in the UK either, for the same reasons.
Can you run a poll? But can the poll be anonymous so no one can check who answered what, because it's kind of personal information.
It would be interesting to know what proportion of people are working/salaried or in receipt of benefits of some kind, I think that might give some insight into the difficulties faced by some aspies in terms of finding employment.
How do people get the money to make these trips abroad?
Don't you know Ryanair is selling flight tickets from the Continent to London for as little as 1 pound? :razz:
Yes, and you can sometimes find cheap accommodation, like in a youth hostel or B&B, or even stay with friends.
I've previously flown to Manchester-Dublin for about £20 for a return ticket. 
If you're organised (which I'm invariably not, at the moment, because there are too many things going on in my life) then if you book far enough in advance, like Ken said, you can get some really incredibly cheap tickets.
Some of my kiwi/aussie/canadian friends living and working in London reckon that the very best thing about London is the fact that you can leave it so cheaply and easily! :lol:
Registration for Autscape 2006 opened about a month ago. The event is almost fully booked now, so anyone who wishes to attend it should probably register as soon as possible.
Their web site is at:
http://www.autscape.org/