Perspective from IPS Board Member
In the early 1970s, when April was deemed as a national autism awareness month, the campaign represented an effort to help autistic people. This sounds innocent at first. But when I dove deeper into the neglect and abuse that people with autism have undergone, I started to realize that autism awareness month was created to celebrate curing autism, not spreading awareness of the challenges autistic people face. I have read about how autistic people in the 1920s were given electroconvulsive therapy treatments to control and suppress any symptoms of autism and they were exposed to other horrible treatments to try to cure autism. These treatments continued into the 1970s, which didn’t help educate the public or raise awareness of the disorder.
Each year, autism awareness month brings attention and donations to groups that can promote treatments I believe to be harmful to self-advocates like me. Some people disagree with us because of their long-held beliefs about treatments to cure autism. We need to create more than just awareness to help people like me.
Today everyone pretty much knows what autism is. But not all people accept autism for what it is. This is why we support autism acceptance month because it teaches people to accept autism for what it is. There's no cure for autism but the number one treatment for autism is acceptance. Accept me for having autism. Accept your son or your daughter for having autism. Accept Autism.
– Justin Boatner
IPS Board Member