Whether you’re aware or not, April is Autism Acceptance Month. This is such an important time of the year to celebrate the incredible things autistic people have done, are doing and raise awareness so those to come don’t have to deal with the stigma so many of us have done over the years. So how do we celebrate such a month? I’m here to tell you how.
1. Read Books On Autism
Bit obvious, right? There are some incredible books out there teaching us about autism from the point of view of an autistic person. Many a time have those claiming to know about autism been in fact neurotypical people that haven’t talked with autistic people about their “findings”.
As an autistic person, I do my best to understand how my autism is present in my own behaviour. I was a lucky one diagnosed as autistic at three years old, so it’s been there for as long as I can remember. It was only when I was in my late teens to early twenties that I started to ask questions of what it meant to be autistic. While I was at University I had a couple of mentors from the National Autistic Society that helped me through and answer some of those questions, plus supported me through the aftermath of my first sensory overload at twenty years old.
So this month, try and find some new opinions on autism and read what you can. Understanding what autism is and how it can affect people is the best way to try and help us function in a world not made for us. I wrote an article on four books I found useful, which you can check out here.
2. Learn From The Community
There are so many voices out there that try and put a spotlight on what it’s like to be autistic, what language to use and how to support us if you’re an ally or are supporting a loved one that is autistic. There are certain people I have found have really useful content that clarifies in really clear posts. You could look up autistic people like Lou, Elly Middleton or Emily Katy. You could look up resources from places like the National Autistic Society or Autistica.
Learning from those trying to raise awareness and get better support or resources for autistic people is a great way to understand what battles we may be going through to see what support you can give, even if it’s just letting us know you’re there and willing to listen.
3. Ask Questions
When I say ask questions, I mean ask questions on autism to further your understand. You may have read something on autism that you don’t understand. That’s okay. It’s a steep learning curve attempting to understand autism better. Ask us what something means, how it might affect an autistic person or even just asking what you can do to help us regulate ourselves. We love being able to answer those questions so it’s not a taboo or an unknown thing that makes people back away from us because they don’t understand.
The more we all understand autism and how to support autistic people, the better our world will be. We aren’t scary things to run away from. We’re people that just function differently. We can do so much if we’re given the support and encouragement to try. Giving accommodations to those that need it to function is a great way of starting that conversation.
4. Learn More About Autism Representation
Seeing ourselves in TV series or films or reading books with autistic characters is such an important part of understanding ourselves. We could see a character not too dissimilar to ourselves doing really well in a particular environment and it encourages us that we could too.
Diverse storytelling is what I’m talking about. Being aware you can’t shove every representation of an autistic person into a single character is key. Being aware you’ll likely have positive and negative views on the portrayal is also a good thing. All you can do is talk with the community and get a better understanding so your characters don’t add to the stereotype of autism already out there. Autistic people don’t just consist of boys or men obsessed with trains.
This is why I’m a Sensitivity Reader for autism. I can see there’s so much more to our community and want to show that to the world through the written word whether it’s novels, screenplays made for screens, theatre plays, radio plays or even non-fiction books on autistic experiences. I’d be happy to chat with you to help solidify your ideas, plus I’d offer questions from the autistic point of view that could just unlock the project’s potential.
All the above is just a start to the conversation to understanding autism better. There are so many parts to this community and all are as important as each other. So go out there and ask questions, understand as much as you can and keep asking questions. The more we all understand, the better our society will be in accepting the differences. Different does not mean less.