Autism Acceptance Week

This week – 27 March to 2 April – is widely recognised as Autism Acceptance Week by charities such as the National Autistic Society and many others worldwide. Using the term “Autism Acceptance” is a huge step forward from “Autism Awareness” – because what we need is for autistics, and our autistic behaviours, to be accepted rather than just noted. I am “aware” of a lot of things – being “aware” of something does not mean one welcomes or even tolerates it. By contrast “acceptance” moves things on towards a time when autism will be less something to be remarked upon – which is definitely a step in the right direction. A lot of excellent work happens around this time of year, and I’d like to highlight that today, while reserving the right to have a rant about some sub-optimal areas of autism campaigning later in the week.

While “acceptance” is good, though, it does show how far the world has yet to go. If you were asked to “accept” women (any gender would do as an example but I’m using the one I happen to belong to), then you’d probably be rather offended at the suggestion that you didn’t just automatically accept them. The request for acceptance would be a tacit admission of sexism. So by holding an “Autism Acceptance Week” we are admitting, and facing, that the world does not routinely accept autistics at present. And that’s a sad thing.

Being autistic feels like wearing a sign on your forehead that says: “please bully me“. We autistics don’t necessarily deal well with bullying and rejection, being used to them, and the cumulative effect of it gets us down. But admitting the problem is the start of finding the solution. It’s very hard for parents of autistic kids to have to see and accept that their children are going to suffer stigma in life, which is one reason the problem can be obscured. One day I hope they won’t have to face that painful truth, and I’m working towards it, as are huge numbers of people worldwide. But for now, the sad truth is that autism is not widely accepted, and so we need to promote “acceptance” of it.

Promoting acceptance might be autistic people sharing their experiences to help the neurotypical majority have more empathy with us. It might be through raising awareness of the reasonable adjustments for autism that are available in the workplace (and some of which might also help in schools). To get to what I envisage as a good place for autistic people, we also need everyone to realise how common autism is, to get the management basics right, and above all, for there to be visible autistic role models. And we definitely need to erode the stigma of shame about autism, for both adults and children.

It’s lovely if people want to be aware of autism – but difference is not something it’s difficult to be aware of. It’s better if people want to accept autism – it’s a big step forward when somewhere that previously didn’t accept a group of people changes its position – like women being allowed into golf clubs, for example. But where we really need to get to is autistic people being automatically accepted, welcomed and allowed – or even encouraged – to be truly themselves. So Autism Acceptance Week is only one step on the road.