Autistic adults with low support needs should not have to become dependent before society invests in their ability to become self-sustaining.
The Action for Autistics Masterplan (AFAM) is a policy framework for Singapore: three strategic thrusts, twelve strategic issues and twelve initiatives that answer them. It is written for policymakers, funders and prospective partners. It is the culmination of my autism work, brought together before I retired from active advocacy.
The AFAM is dormant: these pages set out a framework to assess and adapt, not an operating organisation or a current offer of services.
Who the AFAM is for
Its focus is autistic adults with low or less visible support needs. Attention in autism work usually runs from caregiver concerns, to people with high support needs, and only then to this group: capable enough to be expected to cope, not supported enough to thrive. They also have the greatest potential for a self-sustaining life.
An adult who gains reliable self-management, a viable livelihood and the ability to cooperate with others may no longer need a continuing programme, and may go on to mentor peers, create jobs or run community projects. Investment in this group multiplies instead of ending with the first recipient.
Essential care for people with high support needs remains a separate obligation; it should not be used to justify leaving preventable adult dependency unaddressed.
The most valuable resource for that ambition is the successful hidden autistic adult: the doctor, engineer, business owner or tradesperson who built a working life outside autism services and may not use an autism identity at all.
Their tested methods, professional judgement and industry relationships are the developmental knowledge the AFAM would recover, through confidential and protected routes rather than a request that they return to advocacy. The participation safety compact exists because their participation must be worth its risks, and the Researcher Alliance would establish which of their routes to success can be made accessible to others.
Where it differs from existing plans
Enabling Masterplan 2030 and the Autism Enabling Masterplan are led by policymakers and existing organisations. Current policy includes practical development, future planning and progression towards independence. The AFAM puts autistic adults’ own competence, authority and ownership at the centre, with a route to initiatives they can originate and control. Taking Action sets out the comparison in detail.
Three thrusts, twelve strategic issues
1. Expanding Autistic Identity: Hidden Autistic People and Caregivers; Dynamic Diagnosis; Community Unity; Autistic Potential. Engage the adults missing from the picture, recognise changing needs, build cooperation without conformity and develop potential beyond a fixed forecast of disability.
2. Supporting Autistic Adults: Mental Wellness; Safe Spaces; Self-Reliance; Leadership Training. The individual is the starting point. Responsibility grows with demonstrated capability, from managing one’s own commitments to leading a team and building successors.
3. Massive Win-win Collaboration: Partnership Equality Alliance; Changemakers Alliance; Researcher Alliance; Trans-Autism Alliance. Scale comes from many capable people cooperating, not from a large structure placed above people who remain dependent on it.
The Strategic Issues pages develop each of the twelve.
Twelve initiatives
The Sustainable Solutions answer those issues in three groups. Community Solutions: a Strategic Alliance Non-profit, a Global Solutions Network, Inclusive Ecovillages and a One-stop Autism Hub. Leadership Development: a Peer Community Non-profit, an Applied Drama Lab, a Talent Investment Foundation and a Campus Clubhouse. Independent Living: Peer-to-Peer Insurance, a Freelancer Job Agency, the Maverick Academy and Strategic Consultants.
A productive ecovillage, a member-governed insurance pool or an autistic consultancy is not an additional service session: each changes who owns assets, receives income and makes decisions. The special developmental intervention should shrink where it is no longer needed, while a useful community, enterprise or insurance pool may continue.
What runs through all twelve
The four principles—Strategic Change, Win-win Solutions, Sustainable Solutions and 360 degrees Partnership Equality—govern the portfolio. Two consequences matter most for policy.
Adaptability, not permanent entry-level placement. The AFAM took shape before generative AI became widely available. A repetitive job can be a suitable choice, but a development strategy should not leave an adult with no alternative when technology or demand changes. What holds its value is understanding a problem, checking an output, dealing with an exception and learning again when a tool or market changes.
Self-learning and adaptability are therefore essential across the Maverick Academy, the Freelancer Job Agency and every other initiative; Self-Reliance sets out the evidence.
Success that makes the project unnecessary. The governing ideal is The Invisible Disappearing Way: a freelancer takes clients directly, a learner learns without the Academy, a policy group dissolves once its objective is embedded in ordinary practice.
The Small but Mighty spirit follows from it: a small investment in reusable materials, competent peers and rule changes that remove a barrier for many people at once, in place of an ever-expanding institution.
The purpose is to help people become capable enough, connected enough and economically secure enough that the project can eventually get out of their way.
Updated 5 October 2026