Autism-Europe (AE) is an international association whose main objective is to advance the rights of people with autism and to help them improve their quality of life. AE advocates towards European decision-makers to foster a better policy response to the needs of autistic people. AE also strives for more awareness and understanding of autism in society. Autism-Europe is an association gathering almost 90 member associations, individual members and/or self-advocates from 38 European countries and represents an estimated 7 million people. Self-advocates and families play a central role in the organisation. Autism-Europe is recognised by the European institutions as a key representative network in Europe of autistic people and their families.