Neurodiversity is our motto! – Siblings
<<Note: Neurodiversity is a concept where neurological differences are to be recognized and respected as any other human variation. These differences can include those labeled with Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autistic Spectrum, Tourette Syndrome, and others.>>
It’s April and our hearts are craving for a voice in the ‘April Autism Awareness Month’.
Our instincts tell us it’s time to consistently shift this focus to ACCEPTANCE rather than awareness. We would like to compliment people who are already on the acceptance journey. Bravo we are thinking because it’s takes an enormous effort to shift people’s perspective. With such little attention on acceptance, we are not moving fast enough towards the long-term need and dreams of those with autism.
We respect those who focused on awareness, it was likely due to lack of knowledge. The majority of the focus to date has been on mundane news about the struggles associated with autism rather than the whole truth of who we are.
Society rarely saw autism as a complementing skill set. Though the abilities of people on the autism spectrum could vary allowing only some of us to participate in the community, we would love to see a shift in people’s perspective towards a better future for all. Living in our bodies, we find that we can only use a minuscule portion of the limitless knowledge we have. If the community better accepts autism, it would provide better opportunities for people like us to help compliment the knowledge of neurotypical people!
It’s been a long struggle bringing awareness about autism. It will be an even bigger struggle getting to acceptance. That’s because acceptance means that those with autism are fully included and treated similar to those without autism – in schools, in the workplace and in the community. To be very candid, we can see how big the challenge is because it calls for big training and adaptations in schools, colleges, workplaces, etc. Knowing that the incidence of autism has been on a steady raise, how are we preparing for the monumental work ahead of us?
Let us look at an example in our household. In our days of no expression, we dreamed of a day when we can share our voices. Now that we have a voice through a keyboard, we are dreaming of the day when we can mature our skills to attract a job in the community. Our fervor for such an opportunity has been increasing a great deal. The question remains if we can truly move in that direction because it’s not easy to find a job with our limitations. Lowering our hopes is not an option since that would leave us in a day program for the disabled. We personally want to explore our lives beyond that and make ourselves useful to the community. We are confident that we have the strengths to do that!
