The first national autism awareness month was held by The Autism Society in April 1970; and here we are, 41 years later, still raising our voices in April, hoping we bring the autistic community one step closer to being accepted and included.
I have been pondering for the last couple of weeks about the real meaning of acceptance and wondering if we have ever been close to doing so.
Thanks to Google, I came upon Garima Awasthi’s definition of acceptance:
“Accepting someone completely means to be okay to be with them unconditionally. It means to be fine with all of their traits, some of which might not be the ones you approve of. It means to be in a state where you do not want to change the person. It means to not be judgmental about their actions.”
Hence, I can assure you that unfortunately, we still have long ways to attain these goals on behalf of the autistic population; for as long as they are not accepted in our schools, in our homes, in our workplaces, and in our communities, our well-meaning campaigns are only stigmatizing and denouncing them.
Advocacy should not only be about lighting up all the extravagant landmarks worldwide with blue. After all, how does blue help these kids whose life is deemed inferior? How does blue help all these young adults whose prospect of a good life is limited to attending a day program? The autistic community deserves more than one day or even one month to sing our praises for them and then go about our lives, ignoring that they are still in the midst of their fight for basic human rights.
And while you are going to hear a lot about Autism this month, I invite you to think about how you should show your acceptance and how you should support them. Listen to their words, spoken or not! Honor their dreams, big or not! Appreciate them for who they are, challenging or not!
This Autism Awareness Month we are raising money to go towards purchasing a van so our contractors can have more independence and autonomy when working the farmer’s markets! We need your help to reach this goal! Please consider donating $10 today to help us reach our goal!
Donate Here: https://www.blissfulseeds.org/donate
