April Is Autism Acceptance Month

April 1st begins Autism Awareness Month/World Autism Month/Autism Acceptance Month, a month that is supposed to be devoted to dispelling myths about autism and raising autistic voices. Even today, the knowledge about autism and autistic individuals is often limited or very stereotyped. The entire month has been commandeered in the past by groups like Autism Speaks, which hinder more than help.

What IS Autism? Autism is a neurological disorder that impacts socialization as well as how an individual processes the world around them, including their senses. Autistic people can be sensitive to sights, sounds, smells, textures and tastes. They may become overstimulated when exposed or overexposed to sensory things. This can lead to meltdowns and needing to be Autistic people may also seek out and need stimulation. This could include being drawn to colorful or shiny things, listening to loud music or making loud noises, sucking on and tasting things and more. Autism is not just a spectrum of people, but a spectrum within each autistic person. Autistic people range in severity, but the severity can also change within the person. Someone who may be labeled high functioning can still have low functioning days. My diagnosis is Autism Level 2 (needs substantial support), but my level of functioning depends on overstimulation and outward influence. Some days I may very outgoing and independent whereas others I am non-verbal and my tasks are limited. I may stim more than usual.

Stimming is a common behavior in autistic people. It's a repetitive behavior that can help deal with overstimulation, processing emotions, or sometimes expressing emotions. There are many non-autistic folks (or neurotypical) who think stimming is bad, but stimming for many autistic people can be an expression of joy, excitement, amusement or interest. Sometimes negative stimming to get out negative emotions or overstimulation can result in self harm, but that isn't always the case. Many of us autistic folks just need to move our bodies to help us deal with all the outward stimulation coming at us!

Autism in society is often seen as a children's disorder, but the reality is - autistic children grow to be autistic adults. You don't outgrow autism, it grows with you. I'm still autistic now as an adult, though the world around me does have a little more understanding about autism itself compared to when I was younger.

The problem with the group Autism Speaks is that first and foremost, they seek to end autism, and thats where most of their research goes. They wish for a cure instead of making the world itself more accessible for autistic people. Autism Speaks has made several promotional videos discussing how hard it is for the people surrounding the autistic child, but not the autistic child themselves. There is a deep need for autistic people to adapt to an ableist world, not be accepted for who we are. Autism Speaks also only actually puts a tiny percentage of money where their mouth is, I'm talking less than 2% towards the family service grants they promise. However, in 2019, their CEO made nearly 1 million dollars. Autism Speaks board is primarily made up of neurotypical individuals, and it was only after complaints that they even hired anyone autistic to the board. Autism Speaks speaks over us, not for us. On top of all of this, they openly support an abusive group home known as the Judge Rotenberg Center, where six disabled individuals have died since 1971. So I urge you this April to support autistic creators out there, raise autistic voices - even if they are nonverbal. There are better groups to support including, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, The Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network (AWN) and Self Advocates Becoming Empowered