I was driving through a nearby town yesterday when I saw a police cruiser with a puzzle-piece bumper sticker for Autism Awareness Month. It warmed my heart to see that the village recognized autism enough to put a drop of money into stickers for their police units. Of course, it dawned on me that maybe just that particular officer recognized Autism Awareness Month and not the entire police department, but either way, it was a nice gesture.
I didn’t bring this up to my kids, even though one is on the autism spectrum, because I know what they would have said. They dislike these types of recognition holidays, and I agree with them. Celebrating Black history in February, Women’s history in March, or Native American history in November (to name just a few of our history months) seems a bit strange. I think it’s great that these histories are given specific periods for celebration, but the contributions of minorities and marginalized communities really should be celebrated all year long.
The same may be said of a celebratory month like Autism Awareness Month, but my concerns are about more than limiting awareness to a particular month. Why is it an “Awareness” month at all? I think you would be hard-pressed to find someone who isn’t “aware” of autism in our country. More importantly, awareness is just a first step. We’re at a point in our understanding of autism and other forms of neurodivergence where we’ve moved well beyond the need for mere awareness.
So which stage are we at, and what should we call it? We could call it Autism Acceptance Month. While we need to be accepting of all people, and we need to accept people who are neurodivergent for who they are, saying you accept something sounds like you’re resigning yourself to it. We often use the language of acceptance about things that make us uncomfortable.
I prefer to call it Autism Celebration Month. My experience with an autistic kid, in observing autistic people of every age and in working to help build QRKIEZ, all suggest that we don’t celebrate autism enough. Neurodivergent people look at the world differently. They think differently. Many adults are diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum later in life, only to understand their earlier life through a different lens.
The contributions of autistic people are too numerous to list here: scientists, inventors, writers, entrepreneurs, etc. But kids and teenagers who think differently need to be encouraged now because they will grow up and be the entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, etc., of tomorrow.
We can do more than be aware of them and accept them. We should celebrate them.
Note: The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of QRKIEZ.