For a long time, April has been known as either Autism Awareness or Acceptance Month. It was first observed in the 1970s as just Autism Awareness Month. The original intent behind the observation was to raise awareness for the Neurodivergent Pathway and ways to either mitigate or cure it as it was widely accepted then. The observation was born out of a movement to combat and eliminate it through many different medical and social methods. Through education, advocacy, and empathy-training, Autism Awareness Month has come to be more known as Autism Acceptance Month. The latter term is more widely accepted to recognize Autism as part of someone’s authenticity and human identity. Autism Acceptance Month is today recognized as a way to not only teach people about what Autism is, but to advocate for the full inclusion of the Autistic Population in society. That includes ensuring that people who are autistic have full and equal opportunities to employment, to housing, to legal and social representation, to choose who to have social relationships with, to advocate for both other’s and their own human and civil rights, and to have an opportunity to live their lives as they choose.
What is Autism? Autism has historically been defined as a disability and medical condition regarding the human brain. It has medically and socially been characterized by differentiations in human behavior, thought-process, social interactions, and understanding of the world around them. You might understand it by people having deficits in communication, social skills, speech-language skills, gross motor skills, or needing specialized instruction on preparing for employment or postsecondary education. It can also be defined as being a Neurodivergent Pathway and accepted as a part of someone’s human identity. That identity pillar could include strengths, abilities, and qualities that feature attention to detail, visual learning, visual thinking, knowledge about different topics, nonjudgment about anything in life, logical ethical decision-making, deep expertise in special interests, hyperfocus on any topic in the moment, and having honesty and integrity to the highest level. Autism is always defined as a part of one’s existence. Like anyone, we only know ourselves best. That includes all our complexions in terms of thinking and acting in the world around us. You may know us as someone with Autism, but at the same time, we are also just human beings like you. Many of us understand the strengths and abilities that we bring to the world. We know that they are only part of us and can be used to be successful wherever we go in life. To understand our story and true authentic selves is to recognize that we are all human, and that we are not that much different from each other.
As someone with Autism, I have been surrounded by people who have expressed beliefs that are limiting or meant to keep people like me in their place. They scrutinize human behavior for Autistic People, create a hierarchy of who functions best in everyday life, categorize life areas that I could excel in or need continual improvement with, patronized me for achieving skills or independence milestones, or put me on the spot for seemingly little moments in life or social situations. In those situations, I have often felt bad or discontent with myself. In my younger years, those feelings were coupled with ones where I did not always understand what I was feeling or thinking. This was largely caused by people’s misunderstanding and blaming of certain situations on my behavior or decisions. It only increased my anxiety and enhanced my neurological response to those situations. I always felt overstimulated by any constant talking or lecturing. I would be given so many different words that it would not always make sense to me. In other words, I could not always process what they were. At the end of any situation, I often felt confused as to what someone meant when they were trying to teach me something in formal terms or language. This always lead me to not always learn something important the first time. While any important life lesson is worth remembering, it is also important that it be taught in a way that is inclusive and welcoming in language and structure. This create a safe and understanding atmosphere, where everyone can learn from each other without judgment or misunderstanding.
As many in the Autism World know, efforts are always made during Autism Acceptance Month to bring attention to Autism and what it is. These efforts are reflected in educational awareness, events highlighting autism and its complexions, highlighting famous people with autism, bringing attention to efforts to improve upon or eradicate it, or to highlight science behind potential causes for it. Those initiatives have been pushed and emphasized by people who do not identify as being Autistic themselves. Such practices and customs have been created and observed largely without input from the Autistic community itself. At the same time, historic practices and initiatives around Autism Acceptance Month have been based on historic and enduringly accepted beliefs about Autism. As Neurology Advisor points out “Autism was first coined as a concept in 1911 by Eugen Bleuler, a psychiatrist who also created the concept of schizophrenia.5 Bleuler had initially defined it as a symptom of severe schizophrenia, characterizing it as fantasizing and hallucinating in an attempt to avoid certain realities.
In 1943, psychiatrist Leo Kanner of Johns Hopkins University used the term when describing a psychiatric disorder that, while symptomatically separate from Bleuler’s initial definition, he still compared to schizophrenia. Kanner described children with this disorder as having obsessiveness and echolalia, as well as having a better relation to objects than to people. He suggested that these children used language in a particularly literal manner and struggled to physically relate to others.”
While those understandings about Autism have changed overtime, they still reflect how it is viewed overall and why many still view it as something to be cured or changed for. Through disability self-advocacy, autism is a part of one’s identity and human complexion. Self-advocacy teaches us that Autism can be beautiful and a gift. At the same time, it is a trait that other people can learn to accept about those who have it. When we change our thoughts and beliefs about Autism, we can see that it makes anyone just as human as all of us.
As we move forward with time, Autism Acceptance Month should become a month where we are highlighting the everyday work and motivation on the part of disability self-advocates and activists who continuously move to drive inclusion, acceptance, and equity for both the Autistic and Neurodivergent Communities. At the same time, education and awareness should be reformatted and designed to highlight both Autism and the importance of making sure that those who identify as being Autistic are included and welcomed into everyday society. That includes bringing to mind how one’s needs related to Autism affect their daily life. Such needs could include having certain sensory sensitivities to loud noises, bright flashing lights, or tight clothes.
Advocacy efforts could also include always allowing people to share personal stories and to emphasize why more inclusive laws and policies should always be enacted at the local, county, state, and federal levels of government. Autism Acceptance Month is always just one month. The movement to bring about lasting change and acceptance for the Autistic and Neurodivergent Communities is another. Monthly observations bring awareness and understanding to different topics related to self-advocacy and rights movements. The movements behind them never stop, once those observations are over. For those who may first learn about Autism during Autism Acceptance Month, consider why are choosing to both learn more about it and to get involved about raising awareness and acceptance. Is it because you know someone who has Autism? Is it because you want to just raise awareness? Or is it because you actually want to bring about acceptance and equity that equates to ensuring equal human experience and autonomy for the Autistic and Neurodivergent Communities? As AutismAdvocacy.org highlights “However, acceptance is an action, and it goes beyond changing the language we use. In order to truly practice autism acceptance, autism organizations must also change how they think about autism, and how they work to represent autistic people. Working toward acceptance means recognizing autistic people ourselves, not just our family members, as a core constituency. It means including autistic people in meaningful leadership positions throughout an organization — on staff, in senior leadership, and on the board. It means aligning advocacy and research priorities with the priorities of the autistic community. Advocating for things that autistic people routinely describe as harmful, such as Applied Behavioral Analysis, institutionalization, or research on “curing” or preventing autism, is not autism acceptance. Autism acceptance means standing up against those who promote debunked anti-vaccine rhetoric, attack self-advocates, or work to expand segregated settings like sheltered workshops and institutions.
Autism Acceptance Month should always be about advocacy and understanding. That includes shifting attention and awareness away from traditional beliefs and customs about what is understood to be true about Autism. Just as importantly, Autism Acceptance Month should be changed to fully amplify and uplift the Autistic Community in every way. This should always include allowing those with Autism to lead observations about the month and why those who do not identify as being Autistic should join the movement towards acceptance and equal opportunity for all.
Ever since the introduction of the term Neurodiversity, Autism has become synonymous with it. It now falls under the category of being known as a Neurodivergent Condition or Pathway. Neurodiversity in a broad sense is used to describe differences in how we think, feel, and understand the world around us. Autism is one of many pathways that fall into that group of describing people with such differences or complexions. As the National Autistic Society lists “Neurodivergent and neurotypical people
A person who is ‘neurodivergent’ has a brain that ‘diverges’ from (is different to) the ‘typical’ brain. Someone who is not neurodivergent is often referred to as ‘neurotypical’.
Because of the diversity of all human brains, there is debate about whether a ‘typical’ brain really exists. Neurodivergent people are defined by having experiences and reactions that differ from what is generally considered typical. They are grouped because of their similarities to each other.
For example, autistic people share specific differences from non-autistic people. These specific differences are what we call ‘autism’. But even though autistic people share differences from non-autistic people, they can still be very different from each other.
Evidence suggest that identifying as neurodivergent, or aligning yourself with the neurodiversity movement, is associated with improved wellbeing for autistic or otherwise neurodivergent people, including:
Autism and Neurodiversity will always be similar in that they identify people as having differences and unique gifts related to how their brains and minds work in their everyday lives. They highlight how one is born and takes up the world through a unique and thoughtful lens. Together, they bring about how Autism can be a wonderful or important experience through new understanding and thought process about what it truly is. Neurodiversity only reinforces the positive traits and facts about Autism and how it relates to the human brain.
Autism as a disability or naturally differing ability has often been associated for many as having barriers to any pillar of society. That includes having access to employment, housing, healthy social friendships or relationships, healthcare(in some cases), postsecondary education, autonomy to make your own life decisions, having control of finances, and having independence over all parts of life. This has largely been reflected both through Autism itself and how society has historically viewed and approached it. Autism has long been viewed as a disability meant to be cured or driven away from anyone. Such beliefs have also lead many to think that those with Autism are not always capable of living a life of independence and freedom like other people. Historically, this could mean that people with Autism were institutionalized or always kept at home with their parents. There have not always been efforts to ensure that people with Autism get to enjoy and embrace the same rights and privileges of society that other people do.
Initiatives to ensure that people with Autism get to live in a more free and just society have only become more prevalent in the last ten to fifteen years. This has largely been done through the work and advocacy of The Autism Self-Advocacy Network, and both other Autism and Neurodiversity organizations. At the same time, schools have become more focused on preparing people with both autism and other disabilities for life in the real world. That has come from a place of understanding that anyone with a disability or naturally differing ability deserves an equal place in society as well. For example, some schools could teach specialized and carefully designed curriculums that allow both people with autism and other disabilities to learn important life skills or lessons in their own way. As Neurodivergent Insights lists below:
Using identity-first language (or the preferred language of your client)
Ensuring you’re taking the client’s lead in establishing goals of treatment. Be mindful of treatment goals that are trying to make the person more allistic
✦ Encourage and support sensory regulation and sensory safety. This may involve things such as:
✦ Reducing demands for social-based conversations and allistic social-communication norms (eye contact, “how are you,” “tell me about yourself”). Note these are experienced as incoming sensory demands by many of us
✦ Accommodate interoception differences and support interoception-building exercises. This may look like this:
✦ Consider alternative communication methods
✦ Educate yourself on non-stereotypical presentations and accurately diagnose women, BIPOC, genderqueer, and other non-stereotypical presenters
✦ Be an advocate outside of the therapy chair. Write accommodation letters, educate parents, and support the client in developing self-advocacy skills
✦ Embrace Neurodivergent Communication Style. This can look like:
✦ Consider neurodivergent trauma. Autistic people are vulnerable to traumas that are not classically thought of as “trauma” within the mental health world—for example, sensory trauma, social trauma, and more. The impact of trauma also impacts our nervous systems more intensely. So support nervous system regulation and healing from neurodivergent trauma
✦ Offer options for communication (e.g., written forms, visual aids, communication apps)
✦ Allow for longer appointment times if needed
✦ Offer sensory-friendly waiting areas and exam rooms (e.g., avoiding strong scents and encouraging the use of fidget toys)
✦ Allow patients to voice record visits so they can relisten to it when not overstimulated (also helpful for ADHDers)
✦ Use visual aids to prepare for medical procedures
✦ Consider and support commonly co-occurring conditions
✦ Provide clear, straightforward communication (Provide written materials to supplement verbal communication)
✦ Provide gender-affirming care that considers a person’s sensory and executive functioning needs
✦ Offer accommodations such as noise-canceling headphones
✦ Include regular education about neurodiversity in the workplace
✦ Celebrate and utilize employee strengths and interests
✦ Offer autism-specific training for supervisors and managers
✦ Provide clear communication and expectations
✦ Offer flexible work environments and work hours when possible
✦ Create multiple options for communication
✦ Allow for sensory breaks and alternative workspace options
✦ Offering a mentor to new employees for guidance in navigating work culture
✦ When possible, provide advanced notice of schedule changes
✦ Support LGBTQIA+ affirming laws and policies
✦ Celebrate neurodiversity: Embrace and value the unique strengths and perspectives of all neurotypes
✦ Challenge harmful stereotypes and promote positive representations of autism in the media
✦ Listen to Autistic voices: Prioritize autistic voices in decision-making
✦ Support inclusion: advocate for equal opportunities and accommodations in education, employment, and public spaces
✦ Advocate for policies that support Autistic people & families (e.g., healthcare and disability resources)
✦Increase accessibility of research instruments to underrepresented groups such as groups with lower socio-economic access, non-speaking Autistic people, BIPOC and genderqueer people, and Autistic people from underrepresented cultures
✦Consider Intersectionality in research
✦Avoid pathologizing or stigmatizing language in research publications and discussions
✦Prioritize research that addresses the needs and experiences of Autistic individuals
✦Listen to Autistic voices. Involve Autistic individuals in research design and implementation
✦Disseminate research findings to the broader Autistic community in accessible formats
All these ideas could serve to create a more equitable and welcoming society for anyone who identifies as being Autistic. They lay a blueprint for what any of us in the Autistic Community would want for living fulfilling and meaningful lives while accessing all pillars of society. At the same time, they send a message about what it would mean if we truly allowed Autistic people to be their full authentic selves without fear of judgment, misunderstanding, or discrimination. Such ideas can also serve as a reminder about how people in the Autistic Community both perceive and interpret the world around them. When reading these lists, consider how anyone who identifies as being Autistic or having Autism would like to be viewed and treated when interacting with them.
Thank you to all of those who have chosen to both read and engage with this blog. That includes my fellow disability self-advocacy and rights advocates, and anyone who serves as an ally to the disability and autistic communities. Autism Acceptance Month is an observation that requires complex understanding and analysis. It is more than just an observation to raise awareness and education about Autism. It is cornerstone along the long journey of advocacy and drive towards creating a more equitable, welcoming, and caring society for the Autistic Community to live in. When we actively advocate and engage with those about our lives and the hardships we endure from historic beliefs and institutional practices, we can begin to reshape society into a place of kindness, friendship, and welcoming where everyone can both celebrate and uplift one another for their differences. At the same time, we can work together as a team to created a beloved community that is free of judgment and actively engages with our human complexions and gifts, regardless of how we perceive and view it.
-Ryan Hill
The Arc of Northern Virginia
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Arc of Northern Virginia relies on private support from individuals, corporations, organizations, and foundations to fund our efforts. Your generous donations help make it possible for us to provide programs, services, and advocacy so that people with IDD can live “A Life Like Yours.”
Stay Informed with the Latest News and Updates
