While it\u2019s important that autistic people have their place in society, Brittany Granville believes autism acceptance goes beyond that. She thinks it can save lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo many autistic people, particularly autistics of color, have died because people don\u2019t understand common traits of neurodivergent people,\u201d Granville, who works with HDI\u2019s Innovative Supports for Autistic Workers (ISAW) project said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And saving lives can be as simple as recognizing that just because someone acts differently than others doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s something wrong with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor me, autism acceptance means that there is an effort to acknowledge that some people are just different and that\u2019s okay,\u201d she said. \u201cIt means that you could see someone stimming or pacing back and forth in public and not automatically assume they\u2019re on drugs or \u2018up to something\u2019 and that you need to call the police on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The intersection of multiple identities among autistic people is important too, Granville said. Autistic people have consistently been proven to be more likely to have LGBTQIA+ identities, and so discrimination against one group will always harm the other. In particular, she highlighted the harm that obstacles to affirming care for transgender autistic people can cause. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAutistic people already have high rates of depression and suicide,\u201d she said. \u201cNot being able to access medication or express themselves in a way that makes them feel themselves only makes it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, Granville said autistic people of color are often overlooked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the lack of awareness and acceptance in communities of color,\u201d she said. \u201cThese people are often considered \u2018just like that\u2019 or \u2018weird\u2019 or \u2018crazy\u2019 are most likely neurodivergent but ignored by their communities, the medical system, schools, and often the autistic community itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Across the whole community, though, Granville noted that the best thing that can be done to support autistic people to let them be themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe best thing non-autistic people can do is try being as non-judgmental of the \u2018weird\u2019 people around them,\u201d she said. \u201cLearn what autism is and don\u2019t try to make us \u2018less autistic.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And a part of that is recognizing that autism can look very different from one person to another – or even the same person, depending on the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe autism spectrum isn\u2019t linear. No one is \u2018a little autistic\u2019 or \u2018low\u2019 or \u2018high\u2019 functioning,\u201d she said. \u201cAn autistic person\u2019s abilities can fluctuate widely by the day or even hour. A person can be energetic and friendly at noon and totally withdrawn and unable to talk at 6 p.m. Changes can be due to sensory input and social factors or it could just be a \u2018low battery day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This article represents the opinions of the author and interviewee, not that of the University of Kentucky. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While it\u2019s important that autistic people have their place in society, Brittany Granville believes autism acceptance goes beyond that. She thinks it can save lives. \u201cSo many autistic people, particularly autistics of color, have died because people don\u2019t understand common traits of neurodivergent people,\u201d Granville, who works with HDI\u2019s Innovative Supports for Autistic Workers (ISAW) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":20838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16,14],"tags":[29,30,31,18,19],"class_list":["post-20837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership-self-advocacy","category-news","category-priority-area","tag-autism","tag-autism-acceptance","tag-autism-acceptance-month","tag-merge","tag-merge-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}