A More Suitable Name for "Autism Awareness Month"

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Well, it's that time of year again: April - "Autism Awareness Month." And the sound of that name still leaves a bitter taste on my tongue. A lot of people have argued that it should be called "Autism Acceptance Month" instead, but I believe that that's only half-a**ing it - it merely propagates "tolerance" in society, or basically "putting up with" autistic people. I contend that it should ideally be known as "Autism Appreciation Month" (hell, even "Autism Advocacy Month" doesn't sound so bad either). There are months like these already celebrating the histories and achievements of black people, LGBTQ groups, and women (just to name a few) - not just spreading the message to "accept" them for who they are. Why can't we have something like that?

How about "Autism History Month"?

That way, it'll be on par with "Black History Month", with just as much significance in mainstream culture and media.

Wow, we have our own month? Nice!

I was not aware of that until now.

It didn't take me long to accept it.

I am going to go tell somebody.

Thank you.

Why do we need our own month? There are only so many of them. If every group had their own month, all the school children would have to spend most of their time learning all about these special months and learn nothing useful.

Let's see, we'd need awareness months for the blind, the deaf, little people, Down syndrome, those in wheelchairs, black history, women's history, Latino history, East Asian history, South Asian history, LGBTQ awareness/history, Jewish history, Muslim history, native American history, etc.

I don't want a month. Maybe like a day. "Autism Exists, in Case You Didn't Know", Day.

What about White History Month and White Pride Day?

White folks is people, too!

I think it should be advocacy, but not awareness or acceptance. I don't like awareness because honestly, unless people live under a rock, they have heard of autism. I don't like acceptance either because nobody else is made to seek acceptance from others. To advocate and teach our kids that they need to seek acceptance from the general population is only setting them for a lifetime of disappointment. If people can't accept autistics, they can take a hike. I will not teach my son to beg people for acceptance unless neurotypicals have to beg him for acceptance and they don't. I believe autistics should work to spend that month focused on getting the things that they deserve, fighting for equality in the work place, services, etc. and tough with all the other people. I don't think autistics should be wasting their time doing anything but ensuring that their rights are protected everywhere.

Well, I think the consensus is that "every month is white history month" because white people are the majority in the United States for the time being. But there are white ethnic groups that experienced a lot of adversity here, especially the Irish and Italians. But then we'd need Irish history month and Italian history month.

What we have instead is Saint Patrick's day, where anyone with a speck of Irish ancestry gets to be drunk and paint themselves green (and anyone else who isn't Irish, too) and Columbus day, which I don't like because I think Christopher Columbus was a jerk and I'd rather not be associated with him.

Autistic people should be accepted every month, not just April.

Maybe it should be called...

I Saw A Documentary About Autism On The Telly Yesterday, So Now I've Done My Good Deed For The Month And Can Blithely Carry On Ignoring The Issue Just Like I Did Before Month.

Autism appreciation

In the USA, June actually *is* LGBT month. Women's History Month is March. February is Black History Month. And so on...

Schools in states that buy into that whole American value of "equality" actually do incorporate these "theme months" in their history and sociology classes, just like they do with Black History Month and the others. Months devoted to people who have historically been treated poorly both socially and legally are actually a useful tool for educating people and familiarizing them with people not like themselves. That's a good thing, no?

I voted, "other" and neglected to put my preferred wording in my comment:

Autism Pride Month

It's the best way I can think of to counter Autism Speaks' "Find a Cure" message.

I finally selected "Other".

Continue to call it "April".

Yeah, I would agree that just having months be months and leaving well enough alone would be ideal for all of these historically ostracized minority groups, but because there is an "Autism Awareness Month" regardless, I thought "We'd might as well keep it, but just change the naming to something a little more empowering than 'awareness'," you know? I actually had an idea recently that we could incorporate all four themes into April, one for each week: starting the first full week of April, it would be "Awareness." Then the second week would be "Acceptance," then "Advocacy," then "Appreciation." I know it's very alliterative (and thus a little silly), but I think it kind of works. Maybe?

There's also the issue of privilege. We are sitting in our comfy chairs at our keyboards typing a rather high level discussion about how a name affects us. Yet, we're forgetting the LFA people. The ones who don't hop onto WP and argue esoteric topics, and the ones whose parents are here b/c can be. Should we force them to abide by names that convey pride? I'm not sure & I can't speak for them. Perhaps "Awareness" is best...it comes down to who gets to control that message of "Autistics exist and this is who they are"; Autism Speaks or the rest of us. They have funding; we potentially have numbers.

So it's basically "history is written by the winners," then, eh?