Autism Acceptance Month in April is a significantly flawed name for an identity and advocacy month. We the signers of this petition, both autistic and non-autistic people, call on Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) and other similar autism and disability advocacy organizations as well as government institutions to rename Autism Acceptance Month to Autistic Pride Month in their public communications, literature, advocacy, and observances for the reasons listed below.

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There is widespread sentiment in the autistic community that the use of the word “Acceptance” in Autism Acceptance Month implies reluctant tolerance for autistic people rather than a true sense of belonging and pride for autistic people. Queer folks have Pride Month in June, Disabled folks have Disability Pride Month in July, and Black folks have Black History Month in February, but autistic people have only Acceptance to look forward to in April. The implication is that autistic people must rely on others to accept them, while those of the aforementioned identities get to assert their own pride and history during their respective advocacy months. This dynamic ends up centering non-autistic people in the name of a month meant to center autistic identity and advocacy, and we intend to change that dynamic to the benefit of the autistic community through this petition to rename Autism Acceptance Month to Autistic Pride Month.

 

As autistic advocacy continues to develop and evolve, autistic people and their advocacy month deserve to have the same level of respect as other marginalized identities and their advocacy months. We intend to make that change happen by presenting this petition to Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) and other relevant nonprofit and government institutions and organizations and calling on them to rename Autism Acceptance Month to Autistic Pride Month in their public communication, literature, advocacy, and observances. While we call on all relevant organizations and institutions to rename Autism Acceptance Month to Autistic Pride Month, such as Autism Society of America, The Arc of the United States, and other similar nonprofits, we are addressing ASAN first and foremost, because ASAN was instrumental in the advocating for the name change away from Autism Awareness Month to Autism Acceptance Month in 2011 by way of renaming the month itself and then using its influence to successfully convince other organizations to adopt Autism Acceptance Month as the current name. We the undersigned call on ASAN to use its influence again to influence other advocacy organizations and government institutions to rename Autism Acceptance Month to Autistic Pride Month in its observances.

 

A note about language: Why rename it to Autistic Pride Month over Autism Pride Month? This is because "autistic person" is the preferred language to use when describing or identifying autistic people, rather than "person with autism." "Autistic person" is the preferred way to describe autistic people because the phrase "person with autism" offers the incorrect, offensive, and dehumanizing implication that autism is a disease that ought to be "cured," rather than a longstanding part of human neurodiversity.

"Autistic" is also the preferred word to use when describing actions or feelings of autistic people. In other words, autistic advocacy is best known as autistic advocacy, not advocacy done by people with autism. Similarly, the pride that autistic people have for their identity as an autistic person is best known as autistic pride, which is more clear than autism pride or pride had by people with autism.