It’s ALMOST HERE GUYS, the time of the year I absolutely freakin’ hate. Did you know that Autism Speaks even has a whole guide of how to use their logo? (Unfortunately, it’s been taken off the internet and I can not find a cached version)
There’s also pretty crude donors, ignorant ambassadors, poorly thought out sponsorships and William Shatner’s gaslighting of Autistics on Twitter amongst all the things we already have to deal with.
Puzzle pieces are very harmful too.
Here’s what you can do instead:
Here are some pertinent links about why Autism Speaks & April is so bad:
- 5 Shocking Reasons NOT to Light it Up Blue for Autism Day
- Why I Can’t Support Autism Awareness Month as an Autistic Person
- Why are so many people bashing the charity Autism Speaks during Autism Awareness Month?
- If you care about Autistic People…
- Autism Speaks search results on International Badass Activists
Navigating Life 
I’ll be blogging about — Autism Acceptance Month. Awareness, by itself, isn’t enough. In fact, I’m not sure it really accomplishes much. And we need to do something more than just our own version of Autism Speaks’ campaign.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I definitely can relate to you there. This shouldn’t be just Autism Speaks idea. It’s an incredibly profitable venture for them. We definitely need to figure out a way to take back the month, eclipse their presence and make it our own. Something much better and brighter. This is definitely a group effort.
LikeLike
Can I address this as the only person with autism who had input (and a vote) on Autism Awareness Month? This thing exists partly because of me.,,
Back when we created this, there was no Autism Speaks. They had nothing to do with it. Autism Awareness Month was created by the National Board of Directors of the Autism Society of America. I just happened to be serving on the board at that time. (I was there for the whole puzzle piece thing, too. That was also me, but that’s a different story altogether.) Autism Speaks came along later and pretty much hijacked it from us.
Look, we had good intentions. The incidence of autism at the time was around 1 in 14,000 or so. None of us in the board room had any idea what was going to happen just a few years in the future. We didn’t foresee the autism explosion and we didn’t foresee Autism Speaks. I can assure you there was no crystal ball in the board room. If there was, I can also assure you my vote would have been different on a few things. That may include the puzzle piece.
But not this. Not Autism Awareness Month.
We did the right thing. Our only goal in creating Autism Awareness Month was creating awareness. Really. That is all we were looking to do and I think we did the right thing. I was all for awareness. I still am. Somehow Autism Speaks came along and made it their own. I am not really sure how that happened, they really have no right to claim it like that, but somehow it has become all about them. And no, I am not happy about it.
There are a few things I do not agree with as far as thoughts from certain others with autism, but I sure do agree on this. I do see small, almost microscopic changes for the better happening within Autism Speaks. Maybe just because I am somewhat in the advocacy loop. But they still have a very long way to go. They are nowhere near where they should be and at the moment I don’t feel they are good for people with autism. I think they do have the potential to be, but they have some deep soul searching to do first and I don’t know if that will ever happen.
I am so deeply sorry this has happened to Autism Awareness Month. Not only does it tarnish my legacy, but also there are some years when it physically hurts me to see what they are doing with it. But every year I also see some great things happen in local communities around the country. People have taken this thing and run with it and used it for what it was made for. They have created awareness. Good awareness. The kind of awareness we need.
So it isn’t all bad. We just need to somehow get Autism Speaks out of the way. I am just not sure how to do that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: It’s AUTISM ACCEPTANCE DAY! | Navigating Life