Autism Awareness Month? Awareness isn’t enough…

By ADHDVentures & C Watts

April is Autism acceptance Month, and World Autism Awareness Day is April 2nd.

These are annual events intended to positively change the lived reality of autistic people. But while organisations and individuals are surely going to change their Profile Pictures to include a Rainbow or Gold Infinity sign, they are almost as likely to take no further steps to change either their practices or their mindsets. They will not be spending time. money or energy on deepening understanding or ensuring autistic people are more welcomed into the world around them.

The truth of the matter, though, is that, even if they did, neither Awareness or Acceptance are enough - they are insufficent targets if the end goal is to address the very real social, environmental, and internal experiences that exclude and isolate autistic people.

Surely, by now, people are fairly “Aware” of autism, whether or not everything they’ve heard is factual. Being aware that it exists, though, doesn’t counter the negative stigma, mischaracterisations about needs, or the incessant infantalisation experiences by autistic people. And society seems to have accepted that autistic people exist - afterall, we’re good for a laugh, right? To be laughed AT, not with, obviously. By and large, world media has openly accepted the benefits of using autistic traits to make a person (real or fictional) appear hysterically “abnormal” in their expressions of need (“Love On the Spectrum” is a winner for a reason!).

For those of us who live daily with the kind of Awareness and Acceptance that so many Aprils have brought us, this month brings dread. We know that, without anyone driving real change, it will never move beyond surface-level engagement; we will just keep going over myths and misunderstandings to the same audience who read/heard them last year. The Awareness/Acceptance conversation just isn’t enough.

It will never get us to where we need to be - BELONGING