AMASE is an autistic peer-support organisation founded in Scotland in 2017. In this interview, AMASE co-founder Fergus Murray and chair Fiona Clarke share the group’s focus on mutual aid and autistic self-advocacy.
Interview by Els Van Beneden
Edited by Maya Parson
Tell us about the Autistic Mutual Aid Society.
The aims of AMASE are autistic community building, peer support, education, and advocacy.
We are a volunteer-led organisation…Of our 800 members, 600 are full members. Full members must be autistic and be based in Edinburgh, Lothians, or surrounding areas. Everyone else, whether or not they are autistic, and regardless of where they live, can become an associate member.
What kind of activities do you organise?
One of our core elements is a very active Discord server with different topic channels and several moderators. Our Discord server is only accessible to members, for privacy reasons. Even then, good moderation and management are crucial. We are constantly learning. We have a strategy for responding to crises and refer people to support services where needed.
In addition, we organise a few in-person activities a year, such as informal climbing events, and have in the past run peer support sessions, alongside the online support. Many initiatives originate with members themselves and are then supported by AMASE.
One of our initiatives that is always well received is the “My Autism Story” series. At each event someone shares their experiences of being autistic, followed by a group discussion.
Then there are our popular Lightning Talks: short presentations of about seven minutes. We have two formats. In one, autistic people talk about research (mostly their own, and usually on autism); in the other, which we usually run as a collaboration with another autistic-run organisation, people talk about their passions and interests. Each event has time for around five talks, which can vary widely in topics, style, and the experience level of the speaker.
Every year we also organise an Autistic Pride Picnic, which around fifty people attend. We have also taken part in Weird Pride Day on the 4th of March every year since it started in 2021, holding various related events online and in person.
Other initiatives include interviews with autistic authors such as Elle McNicoll (A Kind of Spark) and Pete Wharmby.
Our online community is the driving force behind much of what we do. Many of the things that happen on our Discord are picked up in our monthly newsletter that gets sent to all our members.
Do you collaborate with other organisations?
Absolutely. We sometimes hold joint events such as a recent online collage workshop with ARGH Scotland.
In addition, we seek to collaborate with other Scottish Autistic People’s Organisations (APOs) in some of our campaigning work — for example, submitting joint responses to
government consultations and letters to Ministers.
We are on a shared Discord server with a number of APOs: ARGH Scotland, SEMA (Scottish Ethnic Minority Autistics), AVATAR Borders, and SWAN Scotland (an organisation for autistic girls, women, and non-binary people). This helps to facilitate joint campaigns, sharing of information, and collaboration.
Together with ARGH, SEMA, and Scottish Autism, we recently carried out research and interviews about people’s experiences of the diagnostic process and support around it. In Scotland, whilst legally you do not formally need a diagnosis in order to access support, this is not always the case in practice. Our findings showed how important diagnosis is for people.
How do you view autism policy in Scotland?
The Scottish Autism Strategy (2011-2021) brought about very little change. In 2021, a report, The Accountability Gap, concluded that its impact had been limited. There is still no new strategy.
A lot of attention, resources, and staff are currently going into the LDAN Bill: the Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill. A large and complex consultation was carried out in 2024, which looked at who would be included, the policy areas that should be covered, and the extent of the bill provisions. There has been a great deal of input by many of us. The question is whether this process will really address the current relevant topics, and whether it will solve concrete problems for real people.
There was a lived experience panel feeding into the bill discussions, which consisted of around twelve individuals, but no Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs). DPOs are on a wider stakeholder panel, with little meaningful participation. It is now clear that not much will actually be resolved in this parliamentary term. Take, for example, the crisis in diagnostic services: waiting lists of ten years are not unusual. The way things are being done does not align with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Are there also positive developments?
Sure. A major step forward is the latest Scottish Government Autistic Adults Support Fund. It comes with strict conditions: autistic people must be involved, there must be a robust plan and proper evaluation. The fund also has a longer funding horizon — two-and-a-half-years, which is a big improvement compared with previous one-year grants, but the narrow eligibility criteria came as a disappointment as it is not accessible to organisations like us.
In time, AMASE will also be eligible for more funding, because we will become incorporated. We do not want to rush that process, but it does offer the prospect of a more solid foundation for the organisation.
Another positive is that neurodivergence is getting a lot of visibility at all levels to the top of government. We have provided evidence to Parliament committees in relation to diagnosis pathways, support, and experiences of neurodivergence in Scotland.
How do you try to influence politics and policy?
We are involved in the Cross-Party Group on Autism in the Scottish Parliament. Scottish APOs have a representative in the secretariat of that group, which means we can help shape the agenda. This year the focus is on intersectionality. We have already been able to invite several influential autistic speakers. This has increased our visibility and drawn more attention to our projects, such as the Coming Home project on deinstitutionalisation. Working with other organisations in that context is very rewarding — we really do lift each other up.
As we mentioned before, we are on the Stakeholder Panel of the LDAN Bill development and provide organisational responses to government consultations of relevance where capacity allows, and have given evidence to parliamentary Committees.
How do you handle external requests to your community?
Sometimes we receive requests to recruit participants for research. We first check whether it is genuinely participatory research. If it aligns with our values, we share the call in our newsletter and on Discord.
Are there international projects that you are involved in?
In October, we organised an event with an autistic organisation from South Korea. It turned out that there are, strikingly, many shared themes and challenges. The collaboration resulted in a hybrid conference where Scottish and Korean practices were presented and discussed. Exchanges like this show that, despite very different contexts, we can learn a great deal from one another.
We have also worked with organisations in Ireland and the USA on one-off events.
Thank you very much, Fiona and Fergus!
AMASE at a glance
Name: Autistic Mutual Aid Society Edinburgh
Country: Scotland
Year established: 2017
Membership: 800 members
Target group: Autistic adults
Core values: Peer support, community building, advocacy
Communication: website, Discord server, monthly newsletter
Funding: donations (and some government grants in the past)
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