Event Series:
World Autism Acceptance Week
World Autism Acceptance Week
March 2 - March 8
What is World Autism Acceptance Week?
The aim of World Autism Acceptance Week (formerly known as Autism Awareness Week) is to help people understand autism. In addition, it highlights the ways it can affect life for autistic people. Autism Acceptance Week is also a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness and acceptance of autism.
The puzzle pieces awareness ribbon represents autism. We offer this ribbon in a personalized pin. The pin is special because it can incorporate a name, date, or message. We also offer a non-personalized pin. Place this pin on your lapel to raise awareness of autism. In addition, we offer a neurodiversity pin. Our neurodiversity pin can highlight neurodiversity in all people.
When was the first Autism Acceptance Week?
The first ever World Autism Acceptance Week dates back to April 2, 2007. This was the first ever World Autism Acceptance Day. The original concept of educating people about Autism Spectrum Condition and celebrating the achievements of Autistic people continues to be the focus of these autism events.
How can we celebrate Autism Acceptance Week?
Here are some ideas to celebrate neurodiversity during Autism Acceptance Week:
- Try hosting some sponsored events! Try something like a sponsored run or skip, a sponsored silence or a bake sale. The choice is yours!
- Why not feature a quiz? You can have people donate to take part. Or have a raffle as part of the quiz that forms the donation part of the event. Quizzes, for example, are great for getting lots of people involved.
- Educate yourself and your others about how we can support Autistic people both in and outside the classroom.
- At school, hold a special assembly or lesson to increase understanding.
What is Autism?
Autism is a lifelong developmental condition. It affects how people communicate and relate to the world around them. This can affect how Autistic people communicate with others. In addition, it also affects how they deal with sights, sounds, and changes in their environment. Autism is known as an invisible disability. This is because you cannot tell just by looking at someone that they have autism. Autism can present itself in different ways in different people. All Autistic people will likely have different experiences of how autism impacts them.
Here are a few things to know about autism:
- For some autistic people, routines can be very important to their everyday lives because it relieves the stress of the unknown and make life seem less overwhelming.
- Many Autistic children can attend, and thrive at mainstream schools, but others may go to schools that are dedicated to special educational needs.
- Another common experience of some autistic people is overstimulation of the senses or sensory overload. Lots of loud noises, which some of us may not even notice. These noises can sometimes be experienced in an entirely different way by an autistic person.
- Even though ASC is very common, there are still lots of people who do not fully understand what it is or why some people react or behave in different ways than others. This is why events like Autism Acceptance Week are really important for spreading awareness and helping to make the world a more accepting place.
