Community Guidelines
Last Updated: August 1, 2026
Welcome to the ARP Community
The Autism Resource Project Community exists to help individuals, families, parents, caregivers, advocates, professionals, and others connect, share experiences, exchange resources, and support one another.
Our community includes people with different experiences, diagnoses, disabilities, support needs, backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives.
We want ARP to be a place where people can ask questions without embarrassment, share experiences without being attacked, and respectfully disagree without being silenced.
Participation in the ARP Community requires adherence to these Community Guidelines and the ARP Terms of Service.
1. Treat People With Respect
Be respectful of other community members.
Healthy disagreement is permitted. Personal attacks are not.
Do not:
- bully or harass others;
- threaten or intimidate another person;
- engage in hateful or demeaning conduct;
- ridicule another person’s disability or support needs;
- deliberately humiliate another community member;
- repeatedly target another user after being asked to stop; or
- encourage others to harass another person.
Disagree with ideas without attacking people.
2. Different Experiences Are Welcome
There is no single autism experience.
Community members may have very different experiences concerning diagnosis, identity, therapy, education, communication, parenting, caregiving, employment, medical care, support services, and treatment.
People may also use different terminology to describe themselves and their experiences.
Members should make a reasonable effort to respect how others identify themselves.
Sharing your personal experience is welcome.
Presenting your experience as the only legitimate experience is not.
3. Medical and Professional Information
Community members may discuss personal experiences with therapies, medications, providers, schools, legal services, benefits, and other resources.
However, Community posts should not be treated as professional advice.
Unless appropriately qualified and authorized to do so, users should not represent themselves as providing medical, psychological, therapeutic, legal, financial, or other professional advice through the Community.
Even licensed professionals participating in the Community should recognize that general online discussion does not ordinarily establish a professional relationship.
When health, legal, financial, educational, or safety decisions are important, members should consult an appropriately qualified professional.
4. Dangerous or Materially Misleading Information
ARP supports open discussion, including discussion of different approaches and personal experiences.
However, ARP may remove or restrict content that presents a serious risk of harm, including materially false or misleading claims presented as established medical fact where reliance upon the claim could reasonably endanger another person.
When discussing treatments, therapies, supplements, medications, or other interventions, distinguish personal experience from established fact.
Statements such as “This helped my family” are fundamentally different from unsupported claims that a particular intervention is guaranteed to treat or cure another person’s condition.
5. Protect Your Privacy
The Community may contain public or semi-public areas.
Think carefully before sharing personal information.
Do not publicly post sensitive information such as:
- Social Security numbers;
- financial account information;
- passwords;
- complete medical records;
- insurance identification numbers;
- private addresses;
- information that could compromise a child’s safety; or
- other highly sensitive information.
6. Protect the Privacy of Others
Do not share another person’s private information without appropriate permission.
This is particularly important when discussing children, dependents, students, patients, clients, or other vulnerable individuals.
When telling a story about another person, consider whether identifying information is actually necessary.
Do not “dox,” expose, or threaten to expose another community member’s private information.
7. Special Care Regarding Children
Many ARP members may be parents or caregivers.
Sharing parenting experiences is welcome, but members should consider the child’s privacy and dignity when posting photographs, medical information, behavioral information, educational records, or highly personal stories.
Do not post sexualized, exploitative, abusive, or otherwise inappropriate content involving minors.
Suspected exploitation of a child may be reported to appropriate authorities where required or permitted by law.
8. No Exploitation or Predatory Conduct
ARP serves communities that can sometimes be targeted by scams, questionable treatments, financial exploitation, or predatory marketing.
Users may not:
- exploit vulnerable community members;
- make fraudulent claims;
- operate scams;
- solicit money under false pretenses;
- falsely promise cures or guaranteed outcomes;
- pressure users into purchasing products or services;
- prey upon individuals experiencing distress; or
- use Community relationships for unlawful or exploitative purposes.
9. Commercial Promotion and Solicitation
Providers, organizations, professionals, and businesses may participate in ARP Community areas where permitted.
However, participation should contribute genuine value rather than function primarily as advertising.
Unauthorized spam, repetitive promotions, aggressive solicitation, referral schemes, or deceptive marketing are prohibited.
ARP may establish designated areas or separate rules for professional listings, commercial content, sponsorships, or Marketplace participation.
10. Be Authentic
Do not:
- impersonate another person;
- misrepresent professional credentials;
- create accounts designed to deceive others;
- fabricate experiences for commercial purposes;
- manipulate ratings or reviews; or
- intentionally misrepresent your affiliation with an organization.
If you have a financial relationship with a product, provider, organization, or service you recommend, disclose that relationship when appropriate.
11. No Illegal or Harmful Activity
Do not use the ARP Community to facilitate:
- illegal activity;
- fraud;
- abuse;
- exploitation;
- credible threats of violence;
- unauthorized access to accounts or systems; or
- other conduct that creates a substantial risk of harm.
12. Reviews and Provider Discussions
Community members may share good-faith experiences with providers, organizations, schools, programs, and products.
Keep reviews factual and based upon genuine experiences.
Do not knowingly publish false statements, fabricate reviews, coordinate attacks against a provider, or use reviews to extort or threaten another person or organization.
A negative experience may be discussed respectfully.
13. Crisis and Emergency Situations
The ARP Community is not an emergency response or crisis service.
Other community members and ARP moderators may not be qualified or available to respond to an emergency.
If someone appears to face an immediate safety or medical emergency, appropriate emergency assistance should be contacted rather than relying upon Community responses.
14. Moderation
ARP may moderate Community content to help maintain a safe, useful, and respectful environment.
Depending upon the circumstances, ARP may:
- provide a warning;
- remove content;
- restrict a post;
- temporarily limit Community access;
- suspend an account;
- permanently terminate an account; or
- take other reasonable action.
ARP may consider context, severity, intent, previous violations, potential harm, and other relevant factors when making moderation decisions.
Not every disagreement or uncomfortable conversation constitutes a Guidelines violation.
15. Reporting Problems
If you encounter content or behavior that appears to violate these Guidelines, please use ARP’s reporting tools or contact:
[Community/Moderation Email Address]
When reporting a concern, provide enough information for our team to locate and evaluate the content.
Please do not use the reporting system merely because you disagree with another person’s opinion.
16. Moderation Does Not Guarantee Safety
ARP may moderate Community areas, but we cannot review every post or interaction before it occurs.
Users remain responsible for exercising judgment when communicating with people online, following recommendations, meeting individuals, sharing information, or entering transactions.
17. These Guidelines May Evolve
ARP’s Community will evolve as our membership and Services grow.
We may update these Guidelines to address new features, concerns, or community needs.
Material changes will be communicated as appropriate.
Our Community Standard
Before posting, consider three questions:
Is it respectful?
Is it helpful or constructive?
Would I be comfortable saying this to the person face-to-face?
ARP’s goal is not to create a community where everyone agrees.
Our goal is to create a community where people can find help, exchange knowledge, share experiences, and disagree respectfully while treating one another with dignity.