Paula C. Durbin Westby is leading the way into a month which many autistic advocates dread. Why?
Written by Sharon daVanport
Most awareness campaigns have little to do with supports to benefit autistic adults, and it's become increasingly difficult for many self advocates to breathe through April's superficial autism frills. Is there anything to look forward to in the month of April?
Within the autism community, April has always been known for it's one buzz word, "awareness." Not anymore. Now you will see a new kind of confirmation which helps many in our community not feel the dread of the empty campaigns that hold little value toward helping autistics and their families. What is it? One word. ACCEPTANCE. On April 2nd, and continuing throughout the month of April, autistic advocates and their allies will be spending their time making a new kind of difference by communicating about acceptance, not tolerance and pro-neurodiversity.
The ACI Summer Institute is a week-long training for Autistic college students. The training is meant to prepare students to engage in self-advocacy and pro-neurodiversity activism on their college campuses. 
Each time my self-advocacy is called into question by critics of the autism/neurodiversity movement, I close my eyes & see my mother's smiling face. My mother accepts me for who I am; she "gets me" and that means everything! I often wonder if the autism/anti-neurodiversity parent activists who choose to criticize and verbally attack autistic adults realize that we are someone's child? Have these critics stopped to realize that their child will one day be us, an adult on the autism spectrum?
