The superstar on my AutismHWY is 15 today! Wowza. Happy Birthday Wyatt!! I can hardly believe it, truly. It has gone by so fast. His first fifteen years have been some of the very best of my 50! I love that his birthday kicks off April. April, the month the Autism Society denoted for Autism Awareness since sometime in the 1970’s. The 70’s? Has it really been that long? Shouldn’t people be aware already? After 40 some years of “Awareness months”? Most people I speak to aren’t aware of too much more than a few heavily saturated media or celebrity messages or a stereotyped movie character. Oh, and people are very aware of the color blue, puzzle pieces and awareness ribbons. The ‘fanfare’ of Autism Awareness, it’s like the sparkly wrappings on an empty box in a storefront window. Shouldn’t we fill that box up with something real for people to know about Autism before we wrap it up in awareness light’s and ribbons? Autistic people deserve more than an empty box packaged up for a month long phony awareness parade!

Where is the Acceptance HWY?

Heck, I love a good parade. 5 years ago I sent out over 100 letters to every school district office in the state asking for an Autism Acceptance Parade in every California school district! Sadly, I got one terse denial and over 99 other requests went completely ignored. Kind of like “99 problems and 1 denial isn’t one of them!” My now 15 year old son Wyatt needs more than a parade from a school district, more than blue lights lighting up and more than I love someone with Autism bumper stickers and t-shirts anyway! We need real and useful info that translates to everyday realities. Tangible information put into the hands of people to use in daily situations. Communities becoming aware of how Autistic people experience and react to certain equations. We need information to become acquainted with Autistic thinking to build familiarity regarding our differences. Summing individual styles up and learning to modify and equate our thinking and actions for comfort’s sake. We need to do the math! Autistic people are the only ones that can help us define these new quotients and equations that will produce innerstanding and Acceptance!

No more Autism Awareness run arounds, instead straight up Autism Acceptance. Acceptance through friendships and information from Autistic people. Connecting to and understanding the needs of the people we seek to support can only come from reading and listening to the real life experiences from those that know Autism at it’s core. My amazing Birthday boy has taught me so much about his Autistic system without using words. People will say Wyatt may never speak but, I know him as a great communicator just the same. I know to trust instincts, to take the time to really listen to what he conveys. This is where we gain the innerstanding we need. Autistic people have the inside information on Autism! What a concept. I say we fill the “Awareness” box with Autistic people’s insights, experiences and advice. No more empty box awareness campaigns.

You can’t have a month long party for Autistic people with an empty box dressed up as Awareness. Let’s hit the spectrum learning curve from the inside out. Allow Autistic people platforms to teach us tips to do that math! Let’s give Autistic people what they always deserve; love, reverence understanding and ACCEPTANCE! Happy Birthday Wyatt!