World Autism Awareness Day: the Best Holiday of the Year

In 2008, the UN announced April 2nd to be observed as World Autism Awareness Day. Funnily enough, this was already a fairly significant day in my life since it happens to be the day of my birth. Aside from spending every single April fool’s day of my life attempting to prove that my birthday was the next day to peers and friends, April 2nd wasn’t that big of a deal - until 2018.

In 2018, one of my children was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Though I had suspected this since they were 18 months old, it took us a long time to achieve a diagnosis. Now, as an adult, I find that my birthday has much more meaning in my life than just a commemoration of my birth. It’s the celebration of those who I love most.

Autism Spectrum Disorder has had a major impact on my child’s life, and also the lives of those around them. These impacts are not exclusively negative, rather there’s a mixed bag with a lot of positive’s too. The diagnosis is more indicative of the dysfunction of our current society than it is the person being diagnosed.

People used to say things after the diagnosis to the effect of, “I’m so sorry. That must be hard.” In reality, it’s nothing of the sort, aside from the issues you encounter from those who don’t understand disability. The diagnosis only explains why there are vast differences in communication and behaviors, but not much else. The diagnosis isn’t who my child is as a person - but, it is an integral aspect of who they are. Ultimately, the diagnosis doesn’t change the child and it doesn’t change my feelings about the child. They are who they are, and they always were. We are all who we are. Nothing about the diagnosis is difficult aside from the way society interacts with people with autism.

Truthfully, we are well beyond the point of requiring an Autism Awareness day. What we really require is a fundamental shift in our collective consciousness. A deconstructing of the extreme conditioned ablism in our society is also crucial to success in ending the segregation of the disabled from the able-bodied. Doing work as a community with community based solutions is the future of abandoning the idea that all that is needed is awareness.

Personally, I look forward to the day when human beings can think more forwardly, with an automatic predilection to inclusion versus an immediate bias to selfishness. The next generation has an opportunity for rapid growth as the first true global citizens of the world. I sincerely hope that they shake up the entire existing structure, and I will be there to do whatever needs to be done in support of that endeavor.

There are so many autistic people that I love. They often have superpowers of which we mere neuro-typicals could only dream. The heart of each individual is massive. Many also have a strong passion for justice in the world, to which I can strongly identify. The uniqueness and complexity of each autistic individual that I know is such that of any other human being - potentially even more-so intricate and vivid. These people do not need our pity, our awareness, or pedestals. What autistic individuals need (and most others with disabilities) are accommodations.

Accommodations should be available to all of those who require them, full-stop. The day we started to value corporate entities more than human lives, was the day we as a society died.

Our world has become so black and white, so directionally one-way. If someone doesn’t conform even in the slightest to the pressure of the ordinary, they’re ostracized. Segregated, isolated, or mistreated. This is true of people with disabilities, but also those with mental health issues, people who identify as queer, or people who just think creatively and live outside of established social parameters. True inclusion and collaboration, and keeping our hearts and minds open is the way to an expansive future.

Am I stoked to have my birthday be known as World Autism Awareness Day for the rest of my life? Absolutely! Do I think that should evolve from awareness to accessibility? Also yes. It’s really not that hard. None of our issues are insurmountable as a species, as long as we are willing to give up our self-centeredness in order to make our ideal world a reality.

This year, as I have done every year since 2018, I will be celebrating not only turning another year older, but celebrating the autistic loves in my life. Without these wonderful people, my life would be irreparably diminished. The gratitude I have for knowing them, for having the opportunity to love them, and to have the opportunity of being loved by them is the richest birthday gift of them all.