Understanding, Acknowledging, and Respecting the Voices of the Autism Community
Autism Awareness or �Autism Acceptance
How do we celebrate April?
“For autistic people, awareness is not the goal at this point – acceptance is. Certainly, in the last 20 years, enough headlines have used the word "autism" to make people aware that it. Step one is low, and you've mastered it. Now for the steeper climb. What do people who aren't part of the autism community really understand about autistic people? Because without understanding someone, getting to the critical, important, life-changing step of accepting them is impossible.”
“Did you know that autistic people are here all year long? Our struggles and our triumphs don’t begin and end in the month of April. How are you being more aware and accepting of autistic people and their families all year? Don’t light it up blue, do something. Make a difference.”
Acceptance: "the action or process of being received as adequate or suitable, typically to be admitted into a group." Have you admitted autistic people into your group, your school, your workplace, your home, your social circles, your ways of understanding?
@AmandaDimilta
Mar 21 - For educators planning for Autism Awareness in April, just a reminder that inviting an autistic speaker, asking your autistic students for ideas, and other non-“puzzle-piece” activities would all be awesome. 🙂 PS. Hire more neurodiverse teachers and support staff, please.
How to be a better ally to the autistic community
Reflect on how we view and speak about autistic people.
Look further into how organizations targeting the autism community support and include autistic people, rather than being run by non-autistic people who may have implicit and explicit biases about autism.
“Learn about how experiencing our society while autistic can look different for people of color, for nonspeaking people, for transgender people”
Effects of autism acceptance training on explicit and implicit biases toward autism
Autistic adults face prejudice and are often judged unfairly and left out of social activities because of their differences. This can make it difficult to make friends and find jobs.
Some training programs have tried to teach autistic people to act more like non-autistic people to help them gain acceptance. Fewer have focused on teaching non-autistic people how to be more autism friendly.
This study found that autism acceptance training that targets non-autistic people may play a role in reducing explicit bias and improving social inclusion for autistic people.
“Be aware that many autistic people may be uncomfortable with person-first language (“person with autism”) rather than identity-first language (“autistic person”). The vast majority of the autistic community has agreed that they view autism as inseparable from who they are. That said, every person is different, and you should always use what makes that individual comfortable when speaking with someone.”
Be aware that many autistic people may be uncomfortable with labels like “high functioning” and “low functioning.” The short reason is that it is often used to deny those deemed high-functioning from necessary services and accommodations and used to strip those deemed low-functioning of their rights. Additionally, it paints an inaccurate picture – an individual’s “functioning” varies greatly even throughout the day and depending on the task.
Puzzle-piece imagery stirs debate between those who support and those who object to its use. In a study of the general public, participants explicitly associated puzzle pieces, even generic puzzle pieces, with incompleteness and oddity.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6085079/pdf/nihms983129.pdf
A few resource ideas
Resources
Resources
Resources
We Are All Different - and THAT'S AWESOME! (TED Talk)
Start the Conversations
What conversations are happening within your organization and/or constituent group?
Are there opportunities to expand the conversation and involve more voices from individuals on the spectrum?