Autism Awareness Is Not Enough

Explaining why autism acceptance is the best way to break down barriers and build community.

Autism awareness has been the main focus of advocacy and organizations for decades. While awareness is important, the focus is on solely creating visibility for what is deemed a medical condition. The issue with this model is it neglects the human. The autistic people in the world that want their voices to be heard are often silenced by people that feel they know more about the autistic experience.

The autism community is silenced by those that think they know more about autistic life. This muting of voices is the reason promoting “awareness” is not enough.

Medical trumps humanity

Autism does involve disability. For some autistic people being autistic has other conditions that impact daily life. Sensory processing disorder and cognitive delays are examples of comorbid medical conditions that may come with being autistic. However, that does not mean that the entire life of an autistic person is built around the medical modality.

Autistic is different than being neurotypical. This fact is not a hierarchy of worth or a measurement of a human’s value in society. Being autistic is not something for neurotypical people to infantilize and pity.

Awareness fits around the medical symptoms of what some consider a disorder. It does not look at the whole person.

Part of looking at the whole person is acknowledging the right to choose your life and identity.

A person on the autism spectrum may identify with:

• Identity first language — “I am autistic”
• Person first language — “I have autism”
• Disability first — “ I am disabled and autistic” or “I am disabled and a person with autism”
• Aspergers — “I have aspergers” or “I am an aspie”

There is no one-size-fits community and the autistic community is no exception.

Autism acceptance for the win

Acceptance means that you are no longer seeing autistic people through clinical eyes. You accept that everyone has the right to individuality and recognize that everyone is unique.

Whether or not you disagree with someone’s chosen self-identifying language doesn’t matter. You have the right to identify with what makes you feel whole and happy in your life.

Acceptance does not discriminate based on your personal opinion of how others should live their life.

Autism acceptance means that you believe everyone in the autism community has the right to equality, and inclusion in all aspects of life, to be treated with respect and supported.

Our autism acceptance

We identify as an autistic person with disabilities. Being autistic has opened our world to opportunities and it has built walls. However, those walls were built by society and are not because we are incapable. We had to shed light on the implicit ableism that was holding us back and decide to explore our autistic selves.

Through this exploration, we learned that self-acceptance is the most important lesson of this month.

There will always be people that disagree, that hinder progress, and try to limit your access. So you have to self-advocate and advocate for others in the community that have their voice silenced.

Autism acceptance month is about support, allyship, and coming together to make a better future for the next generation of autistic adults.