From Awareness to Acceptance: Why the Shift Matters

Why do we now call April “Autism Acceptance Month” instead of “Autism Awareness Month”? While Autism Awareness Month began in 1970, many autistic people have expressed that they didn’t feel seen by this. Beginning in 2011, autistic self-advocates began a campaign to change the focus of the month from “Awareness” to “Acceptance”. This has allowed autistic people to express and raise support for the causes that are important to them, to advocate for their rights and dignity, and to include the voices of every member of the autistic community.

Autism Awareness Month has often been promoted by clinicians and family members of autistic people rather than the autistic community themselves. While well-intentioned, advocacy surrounding Autism Awareness Month often revolved around searching for a “cure”, debating the causes of autism, or finding ways to lessen the presence of autistic behavior (such as Applied Behavioral Analysis, which is controversial for many self-advocates). Many autistic self-advocates found this rhetoric to be dehumanizing and stigmatizing, since the emphasis seemed to be on how to combat autism as a threat rather than how to help their community feel like they were welcome and accepted in society.

With the rebrand to Autism Acceptance Month, autistic voices have become the most prominent. Rather than treating autism as an external factor to be eradicated, this viewpoint allows for the fact that a majority of autistic people see their autism as part of who they are rather than as an illness. Autism Acceptance Month advocates for protection and accommodations in the classroom and the workplace, the integration of autistic people into leadership positions in autism-related organizations and charities, the ending of stigmatization around autism and co-occurring conditions, and full inclusion in the community. Crucially, Autism Acceptance Month also emphasizes the importance of listening to the voices of all autistic people, including those with high support needs and those with co-occurring mental and intellectual disabilities.  

With the increasing adoption of Autism Acceptance Month as a replacement for Autism Awareness Month, the conversation about autism has begun to shift from it being a frightening disease that needs to be cured to it simply being a different way of thinking. More of the general public now understands that the inclusion of autistic people in the community is a worthwhile goal, and that autistic people are a distinct class of people who deserve respect, agency, and the same rights as everybody else. At Shared Wellness, we work to fulfill the promise of Autism Acceptance Month all year round, not only in April. We can continue to move this agenda forward by continuing to empower our individuals to speak for themselves and see themselves as full and engaged members of the community. When we do so, we create a better world for the autistic community and for ourselves.

NOTE: While preferences can vary from person to person, a majority of people in the autistic community have expressed a preference for identity-first language (“autistic person”) rather than person-first language (“person with autism”) since they see autism as an inherent part of their identity rather than something separable from them.

SOURCES:

The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, “Acceptance is an Action: ASAN Statement on 10th Anniversary of AAM,” posted April 2, 2021. https://autisticadvocacy.org/2021/04/acceptance-is-an-action-asan-statement-on-10th-anniversary-of-aam/

Michelle Diament, “Not Everyone On Board With Autism ‘Awareness’,” Disability Scoop, posted April 1, 2011. https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2011/04/01/not-everyone-awareness/12761/