April is Autism Awareness Month. Some of the hub bloggers have pointed out that awarness is only a baseline–yes, in some cases we do need to make people simply aware of autism and the broader neurodiversity of which it is a part. But in many or even most cases, awarness is not acceptance; it provides a convenient excuse to actually stop further learning (“I know all about autism, I read about it during autism awarness month! You can’t possibly be/know/think/feel X!”). This is a mindset I see regularly at my soon-to-be-former job: my coworkers are aware of mental health issues, so they feel no compulsions to further their knowledge in any meaningful way. This leads to harmful and usually incorrect stereotyping and actions which are not just unhelpful, but sometimes actively harmful towards the kids. This baseline awarness does nothing to help the autistic boy who tantrums all night because of sensory issues or the depressed girl who really does need to just talk to someone she can trust not to overmedicate her.
Emily suggested that people who are going to transform awarness into acceptance would do so regardless of their awarness, and people who won’t will not regardless of the amount of information presented to them. In my personal experience, this is absolutely true.
But, I also think this is true, and poignant.
Being aware is never enough to promote acceptance. Being familiar usually is. Yes, some people will always prefer to try to change others or refuse to believe there’s anything different about them in the first place, but I would like to think that really knowing people on the spectrum promotes acceptance. Familiarity shows that we’re human, and not really different than any other person in our needs and desires.
I think I might get that t-shirt after all, even if it is a bit pricy. I want to be able to show the people around me that they are already familiar with autism–they just don’t know it yet.