Perspectives on April and Autism
Teresa Roberts
Dear SPHR Students,
The following content describes historical and current aspects of an “autism month” that involve trauma and harm. This content may be triggering to some people.
Many of you may have heard that April has been called “Autism Awareness Month” or, more recently, there has been an autistic-led push to move toward “Autism Acceptance Month”. The former designation began in 1970 and was formalized through a presidential proclamation in 1988. Although societal understanding of autism has changed over time through disability rights advocacy, there is still much work to be done.
Commemorating or celebrating April as an “autism month” (especially with the older associations of the puzzle piece icon or the “Light it up Blue” campaign) can be triggering and/or harmful to some autistic people because of its strong historical association with national organizations that have not honored the autistic community and neurodiversity. These organizations have historically framed autism as a disease that needs to be fixed and/or cured, focused resources and energy on causes of autism rather than promoting quality of life for autistic people, promoted practices that centered neurotypical behaviors as ideal, and ignored or did not involve the autistic community, even when directly asked to do so by the community.
You may encounter colleagues who promote April as an “autism month”. Please consider informing them that this designation may not honor many autistic people, particularly when framed as “Autism Awareness”. However, also recognize that, like any community, the autistic community is heterogeneous. There are certainly folks who may have little or no challenges with autism month and even others who appreciate it. April as Autistic Acceptance has been supported by some in the Autistic community, while others have expressed concern and challenges related to the focus on an “autism month” in general. The Autistic community in general has shared many thoughts and perspectives on this topic that warrant tempering one’s automatic participation - here are some resources:
Why Many Autistic People Don’t Celebrate Autism Awareness Month
Here is an autism-specific reddit thread that has many interesting autistic perspectives on the month (including both awareness and acceptance)
Awareness or acceptance for just one month may diminish the larger goals of the neurodiversity movement for social justice for autistic people. (We strongly recommend that you refer to Dr. Nick Walker’s excellent discussion on the definitions of neurodiversity to understand the distinctions between neurodiversity, neurodivergent, the neurodiversity paradigm, and the neurodiversity movement, as well as other useful information). Additionally, during certain socio-political times, ableism, which has long been reflected in our society’s attitudes, institutions, policies, and laws, can become increasingly emphasized, and we can see attitudes that were once shifting in support of anti-ableist, neurodiversity-affirming practices shifting back again. For example, initiatives that connect to myths and controversies about causal factors for autism have recently come back into the spotlight (e.g., discussions about childhood vaccinations).
Please consider learning more about the perspectives of autistic people directly through their own work and advocacy: