Think outside the box of Autism

The month of April is National Autism Awareness Month, so it makes sense that the 14^th annual World Autism Awareness Day is celebrated on April 2. It is a day chosen to focus on bringing awareness to the Autism Spectrum Disorder, a developmental disorder that affects one’s characteristics, behavior, and communicational affects that impact a person’s ability in their social life.

One way to celebrate this day is to wear blue to light up the day. Blue is a color selected to represent autism (Light-It-Blue).

This day was adopted in the UN General Assembly in 2007, mainly as a supplement to previous UN initiatives to improve human rights (Wikipedia).

It’s important to ensure that all autistic individuals are to be treated no differently than anyone else. This is what this day mainly for, people who do have autism should feel appreciated. The day itself brings autism organizations around the world to aid in things like research, treatment, and the highlight of this day, acceptance to those who do have autism, and autism comes in many varieties.

Autism-friendly activities and events take place during this month, aimed at creating an understanding for people who may not know much about autism and helping to develop acceptance for people who do have it. However, this year’s World Autism Awareness Day, we are in a global pandemic, so spreading awareness may be a bit different or even difficult.

Luckily there are several more ways to show attention for this day. As mentioned before, wearing blue and talking to friends, family and strangers about your choice of colors for the day, or posting on social media and spreading information.

We can all come together and make a change in the perception of autism. Together, we can make a big impact on April 2 and spread awareness.