Every year I look forward to April with equal parts anticipation and dread because it is Autism Acceptance Month. Note that I did not say Autism Awareness Month. As an autistic author who has written a series with an autistic protagonist, I love being able to promote my work and have people read a story from the perspective of an autistic character. Seeing other autistic authors promote their work and being able to connect with them means a lot to me. Within the community, it’s a great time to share resources, connect with others, celebrate our unique weirdness, but outside the community is another story.

In 2025, everyone should know what autism is. We are past the point of awareness, and with the awareness of neurotypical or allistic folks comes ableism and eugenics. If you don’t know Autism Speaks is an organization that calls for an end to autism, which most autistic people take issue with for obvious reasons. They promote ABA (conversion therapy for autistic people that most autistics oppose), they talk over autistic people in favor of promoting allistic caregivers/parents, and they discuss autism in terms of deficits or geniuses, which is problematic. The worst part is that they are one of the loudest voices during April. They are the ones promoting blue light bulbs and puzzle pieces.

The awareness that Autism Speaks and other parent-centric organizations bring is often riddled with eugenics and deficit-centered language. We are talked about only in how our existence is a burden to others or how our neurotype disturbs those around us. Bringing awareness to our neurotype in this way is like only talking about an amputee in terms of what they can’t do without their arm or leg. It is important to discuss the difficulties disabled people face in their daily lives, but we shouldn’t only discuss the far ends of the spectrum: how burdensome we are and inspiration porn.

This is where Autism Acceptance Month comes in. The idea of acceptance is that we accept all of that person, struggles, good days, bad days, things we’re good at, our humor, our communication styles, and the things that make us different from neurotypicals. Accepting autistic people pushes back against the narrative that organizations like Autism Speaks promotes that we are burdens or problems that need to be solved. If we are accepted as just a different neurotype, then we are equal with allistic people, and in turn, they should also be willing to bridge the gap to aid in meeting our needs rather than the onus falling on autistic people. Things like ABA therapy are basically obsolete because their whole premise is to make autistic people appear to be neurotypical while forcing autistics to disregard their needs in favor of what allistic people want them to do. If autistic people are on equal footing with allistics and are accepted, there is no reason to essentially dog train an autistic child into not stimming or ignoring that the lights of hurting their eyes. We can simply let them do their thing as long as they aren’t hurting themselves or dim the lights a little.

If we acknowledge that a lot of what allistic society dislikes about autistic people is that they are “weird” or doing something that they feel they cannot do in polite society, like be direct, wiggle, not disregard their sensory needs; society as a whole will be better for it.

Everyone deserves to have their needs met and to communicate in ways that get to the heart of the matter even if it makes others uncomfortable. Society as a whole needs to take a hard look and ask itself why does directness bother you? Why does stimming make you so uncomfortable? Why it is a bad thing that someone needs dimmer lights, headphones, or comfortable clothes in order to function? Why does having “childish” interests or a weird special interest have to be a bad thing? Overall, why do you even care?

So much of the pushback stems from people who are uncomfortable that someone else is saying, “No, I need this or want this, and I’m going to do it” rather than demurring and conforming. Our society is so obsessed with conforming that the reason autistics stick out so much is that we are terrible at it, but the better question is why are you all doing it in the first place? If something doesn’t jive with your in terms of fashion, food, office politics, etc., why do you force yourself to do it instead of questioning how we got here and what the point is?

Our society is riddled with systemic issues, and peeling away the notion that we have to conform to whatever is the norm is the first step in freeing ourselves from these systems. Stepping back can show you the cracks and the deep fissures that cause others so much pain, not just for autistics but anyone who isn’t the white male cis het majority. Acceptance of our differences instead of the awareness of our differences is far more freeing and can ultimately lead us down a much better road.