People with autism often have difficulties in doing a number of different daily activities. Of people with autism, 73% reported having a profound or severe core activity limitation (that is, they need help or supervision with at least one of the following three activities - mobility, communication or self-care).
According to SDAC 2012, the greatest challenges for people with autism lay with communication. There were 58% of people with autism reporting a profound or severe communication restriction, meaning they either could not understand or be understood by others at all, or had some difficulty being understood or understanding others (it may be they communicated more effectively using sign language or some other non-verbal form of communication).
Mobility was the next most significant area of restriction, with 51% of people with autism having a profound or severe mobility restriction (Graph 5). To have a profound or severe mobility restriction the person either needs help or supervision to move around. In a proportion of the cases with autism, the support will take the form of supervision rather than direct assistance.