Opinion: Autism awareness is not enough

April is World Autism Acceptance Month, an opportunity to fully embrace autistics and autism, and advocate for positive change, equality and equity for everyone in the autistic community.

Many people ask why we are now talking about acceptance, rather than awareness. What was wrong with lighting everything up blue and declaring April Autism Awareness Month? Surely describing autism and raising awareness of the difficulties which autistic individuals and their families face was a good thing? Why is autism awareness not enough?

The history of autism awareness stems from the medical model of autism and is mainly deficits based, concentrating on disability and difficulties that autistic individuals and their families face. It has its roots in the philosophies of ‘Autism Speaks’ and other organisations that view autism as a problem, or an illness to be treated or cured, rather than a neurobiological difference that should be accepted, understood and appreciated.

It is not about identifying needs and supporting individuals to achieve their potential, but through symbols like the puzzle piece, to imply that autistics are puzzles to be solved and have something missing.

Autism awareness was for a different era, in which few people knew what autism was, and was driven by parental frustration of having children viewed as defective or disabled, who were described as a burden or tragedy that needed treating or curing to ‘normalise’ their behaviour. This was the driving force behind treatments like ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) which is now viewed by most autistics, and the majority of professionals as a form of ‘conversion therapy’ for autistics, causing intense trauma by forcing them to deny their true selves for the benefit of others.

Most disturbingly, autism awareness has been driven by non-autistic ‘experts’, rather than autistic individuals themselves.

Autism acceptance, on the other hand, is about embracing and accepting autistics and autism, acknowledging and celebrating our differences, whilst appreciating the very real difficulties that many of us face in terms of equality, equity and basic human rights.

As mentioned in one of my previous articles, it is also about understanding and appreciating that our preferences are to be identified as autistic, rather than ‘having autism’ or being ‘with autism’. Being autistic is intrinsic to our very nature, rather than something we carry around with us, or an illness or condition which we are being affected, or infected with.

Autism awareness may involve ‘masking’, to fit into society, acceptance involves us appreciating our true selves, and being valued by other for who we are.

To conclude, autism acceptance is about viewing autism in a positive light, involving autistics in the conversation and about utilising autistic voices themselves as forces for positive change for those autistic individuals who are unable to speak for themselves.

Autism acceptance however, also means acknowledging the very real issues and concerns affecting autistic individuals and their families. It is for this reason, that I would like to draw your attention to a topic very dear to my heart, both personally and professionally.

Next month, Sunshine Support will be launching the First National FII Awareness Campaign, more details can be found here: https://sunshine-support.org/fii

To find out more about autism, book a training session, or 1:1 professional advice and support, please go to my website – https://wired4autism.co.uk

Photo by Annie Spratt