Today is Autism Awareness Day or Autism Acceptance Day, depending on who you ask. It’s also Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month, for the same reasons.
- Here is the Autism Acceptance Month official website
- And an Autism Acceptance Month master post from The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism, including sales on assistive technology and AAC from a number of vendors
- There’s an autism acceptance pledge you can sign
- Autism Speaks is running a Light It Up Blue campaign for Autism Awareness. Amythest Schaber explains why autistic people aren’t Lighting It Up Blue.
- The #WalkInRed campaign encourages people to wear red, not blue, to promote acceptance.
- The Mocha Autism Network has taken a different tactic: they advocate Royal Blue to promote awareness of autism among underrepresented communities, especially Black and Latino children.
- A poem by Emma Zurcher-Long
- Emma S. on why she is wearing neither red nor blue today
- A message of hope from Real Social Skills
Some posts about acceptance, in keeping with the theme of the month:
- A roundtable hosted by M Kelter on how to foster radical self-acceptance in autistic teens
- Juniper Russo on learning that autism runs in her family
- An Autism Acceptance FAQ by Feminist Aspie
Some posts about ableism and advocacy:
- Lydia Brown lists 5 ableist reasons why autistic bloggers have more trouble finding an audience than non-autistic bloggers who write about autism
- Dani Alexis Ryskamp proposes the #AutisticBlogChallenge
- Lisa D. on the future of severely disabled children
- Aspergia Jones on why you shouldn’t say that autism “isn’t a disability“
Some posts about ableism in other contexts:
- Feminist Aspie explains the problems with functioning labels
- M Kelter on making friends
- A graphic about Whole Body Listening
- Also, an essay by Berenice Olivas on autism and Child Protection Services [REALLY LARGE TW FOR THREATS TO TAKE ONE’S CHILDREN AWAY in this one kthx]
Also! Posts about autism in books, which is Relevant To Our Interests here:
- Chrysoula Tzavelas on autism and accidental representation
- It’s Autism on the Page month at Disability in Kidlit.
- And here’s a cool Kickstarter for an anthology of stories about disabled characters in post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction.
Misc:
- We Are Like Your Child on being a kinesthetic learner
- Lynne Soraya on grocery shopping
- Amy Allnutt on just saying “hi”