04/02/2026
Happy Autism Acceptance Day/Month!
“Acceptance and awareness come from vastly different mindsets. Awareness seeks to highlight how Other we are and emphasizes the differences and distance between our ways of being. Acceptance looks at commonalities we share and at the strength inherent in diversity. Those who seek awareness ultimately have the goal of bridging the gap by making us more like them. They’re aware that we are the problem, and they are aware that the onus is on us to be fixed. Awareness is all about the problems and the difficulties, usually as experienced by the neurotypical majority of folks who are wanting to make everyone know. Awareness makes sure the world knows how difficult we make it for those around us.
Acceptance, though. Acceptance says “you are you, and that’s pretty awesome. I am me, and that’s pretty awesome.” Acceptance seeks to meet us where we are, or at least far closer to equitably than awareness does. Those who accept are not seeing us as projects or as charity cases. Those who accept us don’t “tolerate” us-they embrace us, differences and all. People who are aware care about us in spite of our quirks and challenges. The people who are accepting who I know care about me in part because of my quirks and challenges. They recognize that you cannot excise my difficulties and oddities without excising a large part of the whole package that is “me”.”
Check out this article about the Red instead movement: https://happilyeverautism.com/what-is-red-instead-and-why-it-matters/
And this is a good one about acceptance vs awareness: https://autisticadvocacy.org/2012/04/acceptance-vs-awareness/
by Kassiane S.I often say awareness is the No Child Left Behind of advocacy. It's a start, but no means a finishing point we should be satisfied with. It is not until people understand and acceot that we can say progress has been made. What's the difference, you ask? The…
