Autistic Pride Day

Autism represents a natural variation between humans and our experiences of the world

The 18th June is Autistic Pride Day, a day dedicated to celebrating neurodiversity and autism in particular. Thankfully it is increasingly the case that autism is no longer regarded as a disorder, but rather is recognised as a condition, and as a naturally occuring variation in human neurotypes.

Despite this progress, however, there is still a long way to go. Autistic people remain subject to stigma and discrimination, often arising from misinformation and misconceptions about what autism is and pervasive stereotypes about autistic people. These include a belief that all autistic people experience the world in the same way - spoiler alert: they don't - and that autistic people lack imagination, a sense of humor and empathy. As the saying goes: "If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism". Research has shown for example that far from lacking empathy, autistic people often have a sufeit of empathy.

Sadly many autistic people feel compelled to supress their autistic traits, known as 'masking' in order to fit in to wider society. This is often an unconsious stratgety employed to enable autistic people to cope in a neurotypical world, but it comes at a significant cost, with studies showing that autistic people who mask demonstrate increased signs of anxiety and depression, and that masking may even been linked to an increase in suicidal behaviours.

And this is where Autistic Pride Day comes in. It is a celebration of autism and autistic people as well as a call to action more generally to accept and acknowledge autistic people as their authentic selves. If you would like to learn more about autism, organisations such as the National Autistic Society have a wealth of information and resources and the internet is fully of people posting about their experiences under the #ActuallyAutistic hashtag.

If your child or young person is autistic, and is not getting the support they require, SEND Advocacy is here to help; offering a complete service from preparing a request for an EHCNA to appearing at a contested tribunal hearing, and everything in between. If you need someone in your corner to help you secure the education your child deserves, contact SEND Advocacy today.