It’s April! That means it is Autism Acceptance Month! Notice I’m saying “acceptance” and not “awareness.” I wrote more about that last year, but it’s worth repeating: “acceptance” and “awareness” are not the same! Almost everyone is aware that autism is a thing and it exists. Unfortunately, due to a lot of marketing propaganda, a lot of people believe it is something that should be eradicated or is “evil” (this post by another author addresses this). That is simply false. Autism is, put as simply as possible, a difference in how an individual processes the world.

The reason we campaign for acceptance in April is to help dispel the harmful “disease” rhetoric and other misinformation, bring light to the positives of autism, and help make the world more habitable to all of the individuals on the planet (of all neuro-types). Autistic individuals are here to stay, we have a lot to offer the world, and we just want to feel like we belong. (Doesn’t everyone want to belong?)

I have a few non-autism posts coming out this month (my natural lifestyle and self care series posts), but will mostly be focused on autism. Next week, I’ll be publishing my first ever guest post by the wonderful Vanessa Matelski (PotsieSpoons), which talks about her perspective on her childhood after being diagnosed as an adult. Later in the month, I will also be providing my perspective on my childhood after being diagnosed as an adult! Hopefully, it will help show just how different autism can be for every individual. Then I have a few more autism related posts I want to get up, if my health will allow me. (I will link posts at the bottom of this one, once they’re published.)

For the month of April, please remember to choose #RedInstead (or literally anything except blue). Red supports autistic people and their families; blue supports an organization that spends more money on catering than it does on providing assistance to autistic individuals (and most of its money on dangerous propaganda and eugenics projects).