These terms and conditions outline the rules and regulations for the use of the Autism Connects Site. Autism Connects provides an introductory service/meeting place for Autistic people and professionals who offer services, and for no other purpose. The Services are available on the Autism Connects Site at www.autismconnects.com.au (Site).

The following terminology applies to these Terms and Conditions, Privacy Statement and Disclaimer Notice and all Agreements: “user”, “you”, “member” and “your” refers to you, the person using, logged on. “us”, “ourselves”, “we”, “our” and “Autism Connects”, refers to us (Autism Connects). Terminology is not case sensitive.

1. Acceptance of Terms of Use & changes to this Agreement

(a) By accessing or using this Site in any manner or otherwise engaging with Autism Connects, you agree to be bound by the Agreement and represent that you have read and understood its Terms.
(b) Each time you use or cause access to this Site, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions, as amended from time to time with or without notice to you.
(c) Do not continue to use our Site if you do not agree to take all of the Terms and Conditions stated on this page.
(d) Please read the Agreement carefully, as it contains information concerning your legal rights and limitations on these rights, as well as a section regarding applicable law and jurisdiction of disputes. You should also read our Privacy Policy, which also governs your use of the Site, and is incorporated by reference in this Agreement.
(e) You must be at least 18 years or older to use this Site and your use warrants that you are 18 and over.
(f) In addition to the Terms and Conditions outlined, Users are also subject to/bound by:
– Google’s Terms of Service, as we use the Google Places API Web Service application on our Site;
– PayPal Terms of Service including, without limitation, the User Agreement, as we process payments via PayPal.

2. Our Service

(a) Autism Connects is solely a meeting place/introductory platform for autistic members and service providers only and:

– is in no way an acting agent for any third parties, nor do we act on behalf of members.
– does not directly or indirectly employ the service provider;
– is not involved in the negotiations between members or for supervising the transactions that take place between its members.
– has no control of the contents posted by members and cannot ensure or guarantee the accuracy or legality of any such content; and
– is not involved in the transaction between members and is not a party to any transactions that take place between its members.

(c) Autism Connects offers annual paid Memberships for Service Providers. Autistic People/Carers can join for free.
(d) Autism Connects responsibilities are limited to facilitating the availability of the Site and the Services defined below:

Services for Autistic People/Carers:

The ability to create one public profile;
The ability to update their Availability Calendar and add notes;
The ability to search for profiles;
The ability to shortlist profiles;
The ability to obtain a ID Verification Badge as a result of providing one form of Photo ID;
The ability to communicate with others via the Platform’s messaging service;
The ability to accept/decline a Invite from a member;
The ability to cancel a contact from a member;
The ability to request and receive Feedback (Review) from a member after you have completed services for them;
The ability to accept/decline Feedback from a member;
Access to membership support;
The ability to set up daily email alerts for profiles in the state/states of interest;
The ability to Renew their Membership up to 30 days prior to expiry;
Email notifications that are account related.

Services for Service Providers:

The ability to create one Public Service Provider Profile;
The ability to search for members;
The ability to shortlist members;
The ability to send a Invite to a member;
The ability to cancel a contact;
The ability to communicate with members via the Platform’s messaging service;
The ability to leave Feedback (Review) for a service provider after they have completed a service for you;
Access to membership support;
Email notifications that are account related.

(e) Autism Connects makes no representation or guarantee that a service provider will obtain a service by using this site. Nor do we guarantee that a member will find a suitable service by using this Site.
(f)  Autism Connects, in its absolute and sole discretion and without notice, reserves the right to edit, remove or restrict any content posted on the site at any time and for any reason.
(g) Autism Connects do not provide guarantees for any of the following and does not accept any responsibility in relation to these matters:

– the safety of an member;
– confirmation of arrangements including tele-health sessions;
– whether the service will go ahead as arranged;
– our verification of member identity documents may in no way be construed as their authentication. There is no intention on our part to ascribe or to impute to them plausibility or to deny them plausibility. The verification that we perform on the identity documents members send to us, is completed by website moderators and in no way can be claimed to be be identified with certainty.

(h)  We do not actively provide any of the following and do not accept any responsibility in relation to these matters :

– Autism Connects is available for Members to search, connect and communicate with each other;
– criminal background checks;
– employment of any service provider;
– checking the validity of member References;
– endorsement of the quality or performance of members;
– endorsement of the member’s Assignment details;
– endorsement of any Reviews or Feedback provided by members;
– approval of review for members. Service providers must approve the reviews they have received from members themselves.

3. Separate Agreement between Members

When you arrange a service via the Autism Connects Platform, you are entering into an agreement between yourself and another member (as applicable). It is entirely your responsibility to ensure that the requirements are in line with your expectations and experience. For avoidance of doubt, we are not party to any agreement, contractual or otherwise, between members.
You should use your best judgement before arranging a connection/service, or otherwise interacting with Members. You are solely responsible for making decisions that are in your best interests.

Autism Connects has no responsibility for the terms of the agreement entered nor for the collection of any monies due or payable. The autistic member and service provider do not reply upon representations made by or on behalf of Autism Connects and rely entirely upon their own enquiries as to suitability of the service.

3. Registration and accounts

(a) To be eligible for an individual account on our website, you must be at least 18 years of age.
(b) You may register for an account with our website by completing and submitting one of the appropriate account registration forms on our website.
(c)  You must not allow any other person to use your account to access the website, nor may you share privileged information you acquire as a member of Autism Connects.
(d) You must notify us in writing immediately if you become aware of any unauthorised use of your account.
(f) Any personal information, including names and email addresses provided to us by Users at the time of registration are solely used for the purpose of registration and the functionality of our site.

4. Memberships

4 a. Service provider Membership

(a) By paying for an annual Membership fee, providing an email address, name, username and password you are registering for annual Membership with the site as a service provider. You must click on the activation email we send after submission of the registration form and payment, to be able to access all features of the membership account.
(b) At the time of registering you agree you are 18 years or older, agree to these Terms & Conditions and agree that Autism Connects can collect, store, use and display your information as set out in the Privacy Policy.
(c) You will be responsible for all usage of your User Account and/or User name, whether authorised or not authorised by you.
(d) You agree to immediately notify Autism Connects of any unauthorised use of your User Account, User name or password.
(e) Where members fail to renew their membership Autism Connects will restrict access to the account functionalities and profiles will be hidden from search results until membership is paid.
(f) Memberships cannot be cancelled.
(g) There are limited grounds for a refund.
(h) Service provider members must agree and adhere to the Members Code of Conduct.
(i) Service provider members who wish to become a Service provider or Affiliate Member will need to do this with a separate account.
(j) Service provider members can elect to have their ID verified.
(k) Service provider members will be notified before their Membership expires and have the option to renew.
(l) As a member, you must post your ‘service available’ listing to the site offering your Services. After that you can:

– update your listing to keep the information accurate and current.
– be contacted and contact unlimited members
– accept service invitations
– request, receive and manage reviews from confirmed members

4 b. Autistic Members/Membership

(a) By providing an email address, name, username and password you are registering as a member. You must click on the activation email we send after submission of the registration form, to be able to gain full membership features.
(b) At the time of registering you agree you are 18 years or older, agree to these Terms & Conditions and agree that Autism Connects can collect, store, use and display your information as set out in the Privacy Policy.
(c) You will be responsible for all usage of your User Account and/or User name, whether authorised or not authorized by you.
(d) You agree to immediately notify Autism Connects of any unauthorised use of your User Account, User name or password.
(e) Autism Connects Members must agree and adhere to the Members Code of Conduct.
(e) Autism Connects Members have a conversation limit for their Message box. Please read the FAQ’s for more information.
(f)  Autism Connects Members who wish to become a service provider or Affiliate Member, will need to do this with a separate account.
(f) As a Autism Connects Member, you must post your ‘service provider’ listing to the site. After that you can:

– update your listing to keep the information accurate and current.
– be contacted and contact members
– send out invitations
– review confirmed service providers

4 d. Affiliate Membership

(a) Please see the Affiliate Terms & Conditions

4 d. Down Graded Membership

(a) A downgraded membership is applied to service providers who fail to renew their membership on time.
(b) A downgraded membership can be upgraded to a service provider membership. This is automatically done when the user renews/repurchases a service provider membership.
(c) A downgraded membership has access restrictions. Service providers will not be able to (included but not limited to): contact new members, manage their profile, manage there dashboard settings.

5. User Content

(a) Users are permitted to post, upload, publish, submit or transmit relevant information and content (User Content). At the time of publishing such User Content (including profile/ads or Reviews & Ratings) the User grants to Autism Connects an irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, and fully assignable, transferable, and sublicensable world-wide right to use your User Content for any purpose. This includes but is not limited to:

– the right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, reformat, translate, distribute, publish, create derivative works from, and publicly display your Content in any media, and allow business owners and our affiliates to do the same in connection with their own websites and media platforms.
– the right to use the display name you submit in connection with any reviews.
– the right to distribute user content on our social media channels and in marketing materials
– you grant all users of this Website, the right to access the reviews/comments, as they may be reproduced, modified, adapted, reformatted, translated, or otherwise distributed, in connection with their use of this Website or the services of any of our partners.
– you grant us the right to pursue at law any person or entity that violates your or our rights in the reviews/comments.

5 a. Content that we will not accept

(a)You expressly agree not to post, upload, transmit, distribute, store, create or otherwise publish through this Website any of the following, either directly or indirectly, by yourself or through others:

– Irrelevant, false or misleading content
– content which is is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, vulgar, offensive, promotes discrimination, bigotry, racist, violent, threatening, contains hatred or harassment or content which causes harm
– content which contains illegal or harmful activities or substances.
– content which relates to a personal attack
– content including swear words

5 b. Our rights

(a) We take no responsibility and assume no liability for any Submissions or other content posted, stored or uploaded by you or any third party, or for any loss or damage thereto, nor are we liable for any mistakes, defamation, slander, libel, omissions, falsehoods, obscenity, pornography or profanity you may encounter.
(b) We are not liable for any statements, representations, Submissions or other content provided by users.
(c) We reserve the right, and have absolute discretion, to remove, screen, translate or edit without notice any submissions or other content posted or stored on this Website at any time if it violates the terms of this Agreement.

6. Refunds

(a) The Membership fee is non-refundable, unless:

– There is a major technical fault on our system; and
– we have tried to resolve this matter to our best extent, which sill didn’t resolve the matter within 60 days.

A user of this site, wishing to cancel their Membership for any reason other than above, is not entitled to a refund for any portion of their Membership.

(c)  Under no circumstances will Autism Connects be entitled to a refund of Membership or portion of a Membership payment because of changes to Services, features or Membership Fees.
(c)  Under no circumstances will Autism Connects be entitled to a refund of Membership or portion of a Membership payment because they simply do not like the loading times/design/functionalities of our site and member areas.
(d)  Under no circumstances will service provider be entitled to a refund of Membership or portion of a Membership payment because they cancelled their account. Cancelling an account has no grounds for a refund.
(e)  Autism Connects makes no representation or guarantee that a service provider will obtain new clients from this site.
(d)  Under no circumstances will Autism Connects be entitled to a refund should they have been blocked/banned from using the site.

7. Invitations and Confirmations

Autism Connects provide the opportunity for the member to invite their chosen service provider to confirm a service. The service provider can accept or decline any invitations they receive. Both parties can also delete a confirmed service, this will trigger an email to the member/service provider. However, unreasonable members who cancel a service without reasonable notice or good reason are not tolerated on our site. Any complaints in relation to a cancellation will be investigated and appropriate action will be taken.

This system is solely for record keeping and provides the opportunity for members to leave a review for their service provider and for the service provider to request a review from the member. Using this system does in no way form any agreement or offer any guarantees between both parties.

8. Reviews

(a) Autism Connects facilitates the opportunity for members to Review & Rate Service Providers.
(b) Members are notified via email once a new Review has been left for them for a confirmed service and can then accept or decline the review they receive via the Review Manager tab.
(c) Autism Connects reserves the right at all times to moderate Reviews and takes necessary checks to determine whether the service actually, however we cannot provide any guarantees.
(d) Autism Connects reserves the right to delete Reviews which we believe are untrue, unfair, inaccurate, offensive, defamatory in nature or inappropriate and will act upon any claims that there are such reviews published on our site.
(f)  Members are responsible for accepting or declining reviews they receive. Having said that, members should not leave complaints in the form of reviews, instead they must contact us and send us the complaint directly.
(g) Reviews that have been declined will be permanently deleted after 30 days of being declined.
(h) If a service provider has any concerns about their Review, they must contact Autism Connects directly and provide sufficient details.
(i)  Members cannot modify or edit their review once submitted.
(j)  Autism Connects will not be held responsible for any reviews on this page. Members can manage their own reviews. Autism Connects can not be held responsible if the members or the Site approves or declines a review.
(k) Members are notified via email once the status of their review changes. In rarer cases where a review my be declined, we urge members to consult with the other members or contact us directly.
(l)  Any Reviews on our Site reflect the opinions of individual Users/Members and do not reflect the opinion of Autism Connects.
(m) To the fullest extent permitted by law, Autism Connects is not responsible for the content of any Reviews.
(n) Untrue, unfair, inaccurate, offensive, defamatory in nature or inappropriate Reviews are not permitted on the Site.
(o) Autism Connects does NOT allow members to post public defamatory, critical & uncomplimentary remarks about each other in Reviews. On rare occasions there are very unreasonable members who don’t fulfill their side of the agreement. If you are in an unfortunate situation where you find yourself in such a dilemma, we ask that you send a complaint to us directly along with true, clear factual and unemotional evidence. Please include the username of the other member. The username can be found by checking the profile URL of the member. For example: https://www.autismconnects.com.au/find-autistic-people/josh3/  – in this case the username is “josh3”
We will listen to both sides of the story and will take appropriate action from there, which may include banning/blocking the offending member from our site.
We recommend both sides sign the a Service Agreement, to avoid any misunderstandings.

9. References

We allow members to provide us a shareable link to the references and other relevant information they may want to share with other members, such as police clearances, photos e.g. The link cannot be viewed by the public. It can only be viewed by members that a service provider has contacted. This ensures better privacy of the referees and that service providers have control over who sees their documents. However, we stress that members should have permission from referees to share their reference.

10. Service Provider’s Complaints

Autism Connects strives to offer a meeting place for reliable service providers. It is important to remember that we do not have any ties to any members on our site, nor we we vet any members. Please understand we have no control over what goes on outside of our website.

Autism Connects does NOT allow members to post public critical & uncomplimentary comments about each other. On some occasions there are unreasonable members and service providers who don’t fulfill their side of the agreement.

Complaints should be submitted via the Contact form and NOT via a Review.

Autism Connects takes all complaints seriously. We receive responses from both sides. We may terminate the membership where it is evident either side is unreasonable, unfair or negligent. The complaint should be objective and have sufficient evidence to back the claim/s.

Autism Connects cannot provide legal advice and will not arbitrate on complex cases. In these cases the parties should seek independent legal Advice.

We take all complaints seriously and members are required to take their agreed responsibilities seriously. We recommend clients and service providers sign a Service Agreement. This way everything is clear from the beginning and misunderstandings are avoided.

We reserve the right to immediately ban members from our site, should we feel it is in the best interests of our other members.

Autism Connects cannot provide legal advice and will not arbitrate on complex cases. In these cases the parties should seek independent legal Advice.

For any serious complaints, we advise you to contact police or relevant authorities.
Serious complaints include, but are not limited to the following:

– Physical Abuse
– Sexual Abuse
– Mental Abuse
– Theft of Property
– Mistreatment & Abuse of Animals
– Misuse of Property

11. Privacy policy

(a) Registration data and other personally identifiable information that the site may collect is subject to our Privacy Policy.
(b) Any personal information, including names and email addresses provided to us by Users at the time of registration are solely used for the purpose of registration and the functionality of our site.
(c) Members’ contact details will not be provided to other members.
(d) Members can only contact each other through the site’s internal messaging system as we do not facilitate the publishing of emails or phone numbers with profile/ads. Users may share such information between each other after initial contact through our internal messaging system.

12. Cookies

We employ the use of cookies. By accessing this Site, you agreed to use cookies in agreement with our Privacy Policy. Most interactive Sites use cookies to let us retrieve the User’s details for each visit. Cookies are used by our Site to enable the functionality of certain areas to make it easier for people visiting our Site. Some of our affiliate/advertising partners may also use cookies.

13. Payments

(a) Service providers are required to pay the fees as set out on the Membership page. Payments are processed through PayPal, offering both the option to pay directly via your PayPal Account or with a debit/credit card. The payment will be processed immediately. If a payment is not able to be successfully processed then the Account will not be fully activated until payment is successful.
(b) Autism Connects does not process or store credit card information on its servers. All credit card payments are processed by PayPal with PCI DSS compliance.

14. Identity Documents

The Website enables you to upload one form of photo identity in order to increase trust with members. A green tick will be shown on your profile. Uploading of your ID document is proposed in encrypted mode (HTTPS) to improve the security of transmission and stored securely. We not use the photo ID uploaded by yourselves for any purpose other than verification. In all cases, we commit to not communicating your identity documents to any person whatsoever including any and all images or information contained therein.

Your file will be examined by a website moderator and automatically deleted from our server as soon as the moderator validates (or refuses to validate) it. No submission data or file uploaded through the verification request form is kept.

The verification of the documents you send to us is assured by ourselves manually. Moderators may accept or reject a document on viewing it. In the event of rejection, the document received will be deleted and therefore not archived.

It’s important to remember our verification of service provider identity documents may in no way be construed as their authentication. There is no intention on our part to ascribe or to impute to them plausibility or to deny them plausibility. The verification that we perform on the identity documents service providers send to us, is completed by website moderators and in no way can be claimed to be be identified with certainty

15. Indemnity

(a) You agree to defend and indemnify Autism Connects, its partners, officers, directors, site editors, advertisers, employees, affiliates and agents from and against any and all claims, causes of action, demands, recoveries, losses, damages, fines, penalties or other costs or expenses of any kind or nature including, but not limited to, reasonable legal and Accounting fees and costs, incurred by or claimed from Autism Connects by you or any third party as a result of:

– your breach of this Agreement or the documents referenced herein;
– the material that you provide to Autism Connects;
– any claim that you have breached any of these Terms and Conditions; your violation of any law or the rights of a third party;
– your use of this Site;
– your contact with or interaction with members and/or service providers;
– your interaction and/or dealings with third parties who advertise and/or market on this Site; or
– reviews and ratings or any responses left by you or for you on this Site.

16. Disclaimer

(a) You expressly understand and agree that you use the site at your own risk.
(b) This Site and the Services provided to you on and via this Site are provided on an “AS IS” basis.
(c) Autism Connects facilitates an online meeting place for members and service providers and accepts no liability arising from the provision of the meeting place or subsequent connections.
(d) Autism Connects does not screen anyone who lists with us.
(e) We do not guarantee the accuracy of the content that members publish on the site, nor do we check it’s correctness. It’s entirely the responsibility of members to verify the information provided by other members/service providers by doing their own checks.
(f) You understand and acknowledge that when using the Site, you will be exposed to User Submissions from a variety of sources and thus we are not responsible for the accuracy, safety, or intellectual property rights of or relating to such Submissions.
(g) You also understand and acknowledge that you may be exposed to User Submissions that are inaccurate, offensive, indecent, or objectionable, and you agree to waive, and hereby do waive, any legal or equitable rights or remedies you have or may have against us with respect thereto.
(h) By using this Site, you agree that Autism Connects is not responsible or liable for any errors, delays in receiving, content, or for any claims, disputes or losses that may occur because of your dealings with another member or service provider
(i) Autistic people/carers and Services may have a contract or agreement between themselves. However, Members agree that Autism Connects is not part of any such agreement or contract.
(j) Autism Connects reserves the right to modify or discontinue provision of this Site and its Services, and to remove the data you provide, either temporarily or permanently, at any time, without notice and without any liability towards you.
(k) We will not be held responsible or liable for timeliness, removal of information, failure to store information, inaccuracy of information, or improper delivery of information.
(l)  By using this Site, you agree that Autism Connects does not guarantee the security of the portal or the services or the prevention from loss of, alteration of, or improper access to, your Account information or data.
(m) By using this Site, you agree that Autism Connects may change the Membership fee from time to time. You agree that these changes are at sole discretion of Autism Connects, and that Autism Connects will not be held liable or responsible for doing so.
(n) Autism Connects is not responsible for any computer viruses or breakdowns which may arise as a result of using this service.
(o) All correspondence and emails that you receive from Autism Connects or a member of Autism Connects are confidential. You are not permitted to forward these emails to another party without first obtaining the consent of the original sender.
(p) Autism Connects is not responsible for resolving disputes between members.
(q) Autism Connects is not responsible for any losses or damages that result from loss of user ID and/or password and/or email addresses connected to an account/accounts.

17. Limitation of liability

(a) Autism Connects facilitates an online meeting place for Autistic people/carers and Service providers and accepts no liability arising from the provision of the meeting place or subsequent connections.
(b) Autism Connects is not responsible for resolving disputes between members.
(c) Autism Connects does not check Members’ details or qualifications in any way and cannot guarantee that information published by members on the site is accurate or true.
(d) Autism Connects does not allow Members to post personally sensitive information on their profile, such as email addresses or phone numbers, and this is clearly stated on the listing forms. All initial contact must be conducted through our internal messaging system.
(e) Autism Connects is not liable for any loss or damages arising from your use of the site, including actual physical damages and theft of your property.
(f) You irrevocably release Autism Connects, its directors and employees absolutely from all liability and responsibility for injury, damages, illness, accident, death, veterinary expenses, loss of property howsoever arising which may occur to any animal or person at any time as a result of the use of this introductory service.
(g) Autism Connects is not responsible for any losses or damages that result from loss of user ID and/or password and/or email addresses connected to an account/accounts.
(h) Autism Connects exclude all liability in respect of loss of data, interruption to business (including without limitation caused by our website being non-operational for periods of time) or any consequential or incidental damages arising out of or in respect of a provision of the Services or the performance of our Website and systems.
(h) You expressly understand and agree that Autism Connects its site editors, officers, directors, agents, partners, employees and affiliates will not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or exemplary damages; this includes, but is not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses (even if Autism Connects has been advised of the possibility of such losses and/or damages) resulting from

– the use of Services or the inability to use Services;
– the cost of obtaining substitute goods and/or Services resulting from any transaction entered into on through Services;
– unauthorised access to or alteration of your data transmissions;
– statements or conduct by members or any third party using the site;
– reviews & ratings left for Members on our site;
– dealing with information from this Site, such as but not limited to the risk of physical harm, of mental harm, of emotional harm, of dealing with strangers, animals, foreign nationals, underage persons or people acting under false pretences;
– issues, claims or disputes between you and other Users of this site, regardless of the nature or reason of the dispute, the allegations or any other circumstances surrounding such dispute;
– unauthorised use or alterations in any content you post to the site;
– your use of the site, including actual physical damages and theft of your property;
– any security breach or any other security intrusion;
– you knowingly publishing personally sensitive information such as your email or phone number on your profile/ad (which we clearly state is not permitted);
– your inability to keep your availability dates up-to-date

18. Members Obligations & Code of Conduct

(a) Members agree to ensure that all content, whether text, software, code, music or sound, photographs or graphics, video or other materials (“content”), that they post or transmit through the site is both accurate, truthful and current at all times.
(b) Members understand that their content will under their sole responsibility and that Autism Connects will not be responsible in any way for content displayed on this web site, nor for any error or omission.
(c) Members agree not to post personally sensitive information on their profile, such as email addresses or phone numbers.
(d) Members agree that all initial contact must be conducted through our internal messaging system. From their users may share their email addresses and/or phone numbers.
(c) Members understand and agree that Autism Connects has the right to suspend your use of the site if it is thought that you have not met your registration obligations or if your Account has not been fully activated through email verification.
(d) Users and Members understand and agree that by using this Site, they must agree to the Members Code of Conduct.
(e) Members Code of Conduct – when using our Site/Service, you agree:

–  that you are at least 18 years of age;
–  comply at all times in full with these Terms;
–  keep your login details confidential and prevent any unauthorised access to, or use of, the Services via your Account;
–  not create a fake identity or impersonate anyone else;
–  promptly notify us of any unauthorised use of your Account;
–  not access all or any part of the Platform or Services in order to build a product or service which competes with the Services (including the Platform);
–  not to use our Site/Service for any spam or other unsolicited messages;
–  not to interfere with any networks connected with the site or to transmit any objectionable material through the site;
–  not to try to gain unauthorised access to the site;
–  not to access or otherwise interact with our website using any robot, spider or other automated means;
–  not to transmit any harmful computer viruses through the site;
–  not to interfere the purpose of the site;
–  not to violate the directives set out in the robots.txt file for our website;
–  not to use data collected from our website for any direct marketing activity (including without limitation email marketing, SMS marketing, telemarketing and direct mailing).
–  not to collect information about other members; and
–  that under no circumstances will Autism Connects be liable for any damages arising out of your use of the Site;
–  to the members code of conduct –  checkboxes are located on the member and service provider profiles.
– not to post critical & uncomplimentary remarks about each other in Reviews & Ratings. Disputes need to be bought to our attention directly. This can be done by contacting us.

(f) More about our code of Conduct can be found here: Members Code of Conduct.

19. Direct Marketing & Emails

(a) As part of Membership, you will receive emails required for the upkeep and maintenance of your account. These emails are necessary and there is no way to disable such notifications.
(b) You may disable notifications of new messages received from other members. The steps to do this are in the FAQs for both Autistic people/Carers and Service providers.
(c) If you subscribed to receive email alerts of new members, you can unsubscribe at any time via removing those states via your Daily Email Alerts page, or you may unsubscribe via the link at the bottom of the email.
(d) Autism Connects reserves the right to unsubscribe inactive subscribers from daily email alerts. Inactive subscribers are people who have either never opened an email from Autism Connects or have previously opened an email from Autism Connects BUT haven’t opened one in more than 6 months. This ensures that we can maintain healthy deliverability and optimal performance for our email alerts system.
(e) Please do not mark any of our emails as spam with your email client.
(f) It’s up to members to ensure that they have whitelisted our email address: admin@autismconnects.com.au.

20. Offers & Promotions

(a) Autism Connects may, from time to time, offer discounts to membership fees.
(b) Such promotions/discounts will be specified on the Site and associated social media accounts, along with the Terms & Conditions.
(c) Users/Members agree that these promotions may be removed or extended at the sole discretion of Autism Connects, and that Autism Connects will not be held liable or responsible for doing so.

21. Force Majeure

(a) Autism Connects will not be liable by reason of the failure in the performance of obligations under these Terms and Conditions by reason of strikes, riots, fire, explosions, acts of God, war, governmental action, or any other cause which is beyond our reasonable control.

22. Site Availability

(a) From time to time down-time, either scheduled or unscheduled, may occur.
(b) Autism Connects will use reasonable endeavours to ensure this amount of down-time is limited.
(c) Autism Connects will in no way be held liable or responsible for the consequences of any down-time.
(d) Autism Connects will notify it’s Users and Members of downtime via online communication such as email or updates on social media channels.
(e) Autism Connects is aware of upcoming downtimes due to server maintenance or other, we will provide Users and Members with reasonable notice via online channels such as email or social media.

23. Report Abuse

(a) If you learn of any unlawful material or activity on our website, or any material or activity that breaches these terms and conditions, please inform us; You can let us know about any such material or activity via email to admin@autismconnects.com.au
(b) Autism Connects will notify users of any known scams or common scams on the “Security Notice” page.

24. Monitoring

(a) Notwithstanding the provisions of this Policy, we do not actively monitor content.
(b) If you become aware of any material on the Website that contravenes this Policy, please notify us by sending an email to admin@autismconnects.com.au

25. Reservation of Right

If you breach or threaten to breach this Agreement, Autism Connects reserves the right to suspend or terminate your Account and/or your access to any part or all of the Platform and Our Services at any time without prior notice. Autism Connects may provide notice of termination by email, but is not obliged to do so. Please note that if your Account is cancelled, we do not have an obligation to delete or return to you access to our platform, nor are we required to provide you with a refund.

When we can suspend or terminate your Account/Membership:

– if we have found that you have stolen, caused accidental or non accidental damage to a person’s property without replacement; or
– if you allow a non member access to the site via your Membership Account; or
– yourself or someone you know uses the Site for commercial gains; or
– if you post inappropriate content on the site; or
– if you breach any of the Terms and Conditions outlined on this page.
– if you lodge a dispute with PayPal.
– if you are causing a nuisance to members on our site i.e. sending multiple spammy messages, leaving fake reviews, threatening and the use of inappropriate language e.g
– if you are deliberately causing harm to our site
– if you are using this site for a purpose other than to find a member/service provider

26. Deletion of Accounts

Member requests
(a) If a Member wishes to delete their Account, they need to contact us.
(b) Deleting your account has no grounds for a refund.
(c) Deleting an account destroys all the users data and no data can be restored.

Deletion of membership accounts by Autism Connects

(a) Autism Connects reserve the right to delete free membership accounts which are older than 7 days AND have not been full activated via email.
(b) Autism Connects reserves the right to delete account which it feels have been created by spam users.
(c) Autism Connects reserves the right to delete new paid service provider membership accounts, where the creating user has used a stolen credit card.

27. Whole Agreement

These terms and conditions represent the whole agreement between you and Autism Connects concerning your use and access to our Site and your use and access to the documents and information on it. No other term is to be included in this agreement except where it is required to be included by any legislation of the Commonwealth or any State or Territory. All implied terms except those implied by statute and which cannot be expressly excluded are hereby expressly excluded

28. Severability

(a) If anything in this contract is void or otherwise unenforceable then it will be severed and the rest of the Contract remains in force.
(b) If any unlawful and/or unenforceable provision of these terms and conditions would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to be deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect

29. Jurisdiction and Applicable Law

(a) These Terms, use of this Site, the Services and any dispute arising out of any User’s use of the Site or Services is subject to the laws of the Northern Territory, Australia, and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Northern Territory courts.
(b) When this Site is accessed from a country other than Australia, Autism Connects make no representation that the content of the Site complies with the laws (including intellectual property laws) of that country.
(c) Accessing the Site from a country other than Australia is at the Users own risk.

30. Copyright notice

(a) Copyright (c) 2021 Autism Connects
(b) Subject to the express provisions of these terms and conditions:

– we, together with our licensors, own and control all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website; and
– all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website are reserved.