Opinion: Autistics need acceptance, not awareness
April has been designated as Autism Awareness Month and, while most people trying to support mean well, many don’t know that the autistic community isn’t asking people to “light it up blue” or donate to Autism Speaks. Mainstream cultural narratives around autism tend to focus on allistic doctors and caregivers, and too often the voices of actually autistic people are drowned out.
Misinformation or fear-mongering around our identity is everywhere, from stubborn anti-vaxxers who still believe vaccines will give their kids autism to videos equating autism with AIDS or cancer, or promising it will destroy your marriage. A lot of this stems from organizations like Autism Speaks, which don’t aim to support autistic people but to fix us. The organization is responsible for many more egregious attacks against us. However, covering that would take its own article.
Still, autistic advocates, including myself, are working to make our voices heard. In the autistic community, April isn’t known as Autism Awareness Month, but Autism Acceptance Month. Self-advocates share resources on social media to push for greater compassion, respect, and understanding.
We’re trying to show people that there’s nothing wrong with us. Autism isn’t a deficiency or a shortcoming. Autistic people aren’t allistic people with a puzzle piece missing. Some things are hard for autistic people because life is hard for everyone, and many groups of people share hardships for many different reasons. Redheads are prone to sunburn, but that doesn’t mean the thing that makes them unique shouldn’t be accepted and appreciated.
Many of the hardships of autism come from existing in a world that isn’t designed for us. As Albert Einstein said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will spend its whole life thinking it is stupid.” If you judge an autistic person with sensory sensitivities by their ability to spend an hour in a crowded, noisy, brightly lit grocery store, you will probably reach some erroneous conclusions about their abilities.
We aren’t “living in our own world,” we’re uniquely experiencing this one. We are whole people with a certain type of brain that has been labeled atypical. There’s no allistic person locked inside an autistic mind. Autism is like the chocolate of a cupcake: it permeates the whole of someone’s being and, without it, the world would lose a valuable flavor. Autistic people are wonderful and important, not in spite of our autism or even because of it. We are wonderful and important because we are human. We are all unique, complex individuals who are not currently having our needs met.
To truly be an ally to the autistic community, start listening to our voices — whether we speak verbally or communicate through augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Follow advocates like The Autisticats, Tiffany Hammond and the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. Wear red instead of blue, and take the time to learn from the real experts on autism. Read what we’re saying with #actuallyautistic.
Most people haven’t had the chance to learn what autistic people are really like. They have pictures fixed in their heads of little boys who like trains and throw tantrums, but that leaves out all the autistic people who don’t fit a specific mold. That’s what autism awareness has brought us. It’s time to move past that. It’s time to fight for autism acceptance so that hopefully, one day, we can graduate to autism appreciation.
Katelyn Allred is an opinion writer in her junior year of college. She’s studying English with an emphasis in creative writing and enjoys reading, listening to podcasts, and baking.
katelyn.allred@usu.edu