April is Autism Awareness Month — as a developmental disability with years of stigma, this is an important time to learn and reflect. Autism Spectrum Disorder can impact a person’s social skills, self-regulation abilities and communication. Much of the mission of Autism Awareness Month is for non-autistic individuals to learn more about autism and foster autism acceptance in our lives and our society.
Autism is a spectrum so not every autistic individual is going to have the same degree, level or experience of autism. It’s oftentimes unique to the individual. Some autistic people are nonverbal, others aren’t. Some struggle more with sensory issues, others struggle more with building relationships.
Autistic advocate Kaelynn Partlow often discusses how accepting autistic individuals means also accepting the not relatable side of autism. She notes you can’t cherry pick the parts of autism you want to be understanding about to be a true advocate. All sides and degrees of autism need to be met with kindness.
While many autistic people learn through therapy how to approach a world built for neurotypical individuals, non-autistic people rarely do much to learn how to approach those with autism. The least one can do is learn to be accommodating even in the little ways. Partlow gives some examples such as providing the autistic person in your life space after a social gathering or asking them about something they are passionate about and actively listening.
Yet, there’s plenty of times when someone is autistic, and people don’t know. So, a rule of thumb is to lead with kindness and avoid making assumptions about someone’s character based on one behavior. While April is Autism Awareness Month, remember those with autism experience it every day so keep learning about autism acceptance throughout the rest of the year too.
