Hi all,
it has been the case for several years that the membership part of the site has had substantial problems, technical and social, that have been difficult to administrate. After considering our options, in terms of technical ability, available labour, and dopamine levels, the Autistic Empire is closing its citizenship functions for the time being. Since we started our work in 2018, there are now many other autistic-led membership-based organisations that are sustaining themselves and so this aspect of our community is not as urgent as it once was.
All current citizenship recurring payments are being paused and with the expected drop in income (we have been financially independent of all external funding sources for over five years), we will also be closing down much of our paid-for infrastructure to keep costs manageable. We are currently working on this transition now.
If things change, somehow, citizenship of the Autistic Empire will return.
The Autistic Empire continues to be registered as a company in the UK and will continue trading. The tools and resources on the website will continue to remain available indefinitely. When the transition is complete, we expect to be able to develop new projects that have been unable to be resourced while we were struggling to administrate the rest of the organisation.
The Audible Autism podcast continues at AudibleAutism.com.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our community. This remains our world.