National Autistic Society
British organization for autistic people and their loved ones
The National Autistic Society is a charity for autistic people and their families in the United Kingdom. Since 1962, the National Autistic Society has been providing support, guidance and advice, as well as campaigning for improved rights, services and opportunities to help create a society that works for autistic people.
The National Autistic Society is funded through UK government grants and voluntary contributions. The Chief Executive as of 2026 is Caroline Stevens. She took over from Mark Lever in 2019, after being Chief Executive at Kids for six years.
History
The organisation was founded on 23 January 1962 as the Society for Psychotic Children by parents of autistic children living in the area, with the assistance of a member from the Spastics Society (later Scope). Its origins were as a self-help group involving both parents and professionals. It was renamed the Society for Autistic Children later that year, the National Society for Autistic Children in 1966, and the National Autistic Society in 1975.
In 1963, Gerald Gasson, a parent and member of the executive committee, designed the primary symbol for autism: a puzzle piece with a picture of a crying child inside of it, which was first used as logo by the NAS itself. In 1965, The Society School for Autistic Children was established, later renamed as the Sybil Elgar School after their first principal.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “National Autistic Society” as british organization for autistic people and their loved ones. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as british organization for autistic people and their loved ones. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6970835. VIAF identifies the subject as 157713758. The Library of Congress control number is n91046736. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 2026, 2019 and 1966.
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This entry incorporates text from “National Autistic Society” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.