Are autism awareness/acceptance campaigns doing any good?

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So join our acceptance campaign:
http://www.autismacceptancemonth.com/
Our unified message is "Nothing about us without us!"
So join the Autistic Self Advocacy Network:
http://autisticadvocacy.org/

I took a look. Thanks!

I guess those two organisations you put up are a good start. I like what they are doing, but I'm a bit disappointed that people on the spectrum are referred to as disabled. Some "symptoms" of the Autistic spectrum are disabling, but others are simply different. Austic spectrum doesn't totally come under the umbrella of disability.

However this is just a minor quibble and I think that they do good work.

BTW this Autscape looks very interesting. I haven't looked into it in detail until yesterday. I may attend the one this year once they put up the entire programme for it. I have time off then, so it'll be simply a matter of clubbing together the money!

BTW, I'm still following this topic and paying attention to all comments. You are all very helpful. Thanks!

Here is a video of autistics saying something similar to "We're in your face and we're not going away.":
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=64 ... 8162539796

And here is a bunch of autistic people waving signs:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vj3TxVRbbY[/youtube]

(I really don't think we need to throw fake blood)

I think there is too much emphasis in activism generally on awareness. Reason being that providing information to someone who has little or no knowledge of a subject (the 'uninformed') is far easier than trying to educate a person who's knowledge of a subject is based on false or inaccurate information (misinformed/disinformed).

The large quantities of disinformation present in publications deemed to have a high degree of authority (e.g the "mainstream media") are a major problem of the "information age".

{as an aside, I would be quite interested in a survey on the perceived accuracy of - for example - newspapers, documentaries, movies, 24hr cable news channels vs. the accuracy of the information they actually provide, particularly on medical/scientific matters (mostly because I cringe at the amount of bad science reporting I see)}

On the topic of autism, there is still a sizeable minority who think of autistic as either "Rain Man" or "child hitting head against brick wall". Autism has a much, much broader definition, recent changes in the DSM (DSM V) make this even more broad.

You can lead a horse a water, but you can't make it drink. All the awareness campaigns in the world won't be of any use if people don't want to learn.

This is why I feel that any education campaign should carry an element of moral compulsion behind it. For example, if you ethnic minority badly because of ignorance, you are pilloried as a racist. It should be same with people on the autistic spectrum. The message of any awareness raising campaign should be, "this is what autism is like, these are the ways we are treated badly, and if you continue to do this, then you are a bad person, and no different from a racist, sexist or homophobe"

I feel the LGBT, Feminist and Ethnic Minority liberation campaigns really took off when they introduced an element of moral compulsion behind their message, and made significant sections of society feel guilty about oppressing them.

Exactly. Those groups found something that has worked quite well.