Autism Acceptance in the US in the last 20 years

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Yesterday was Autism awareness day, but anyone whose been in the Autism community long enough know that we need more than just awareness but acceptance. Since the mid 2000s Autism has become a hot topic in American pop-culture Autism went from a relatively obscure disorder to now being one of the most diagnosed conditions in America outside of Adhd.

I still feel we have a long way to go before Autism gets fully embraced, but compared to 20 years or 30 years ago it seem like people are more aware and accepting toward Autism then they were back then. Social media definitely help with that, but also more autstic people speaking up in public.

As a kid in the 2000s there weren't any mainstream examples of Autism that I was aware of. It wasn't until 2010 when I started seeing an explosion of autism in the mainstream media. My first exposure to Autism was an Autism Speaks commercial of Rnb singer Toni Braxton talking about her non-verbal son then I saw a movie on BET about a durg/Crack addicted mom with an autstic daughter. I also saw videos on YouTube with autstic kids (past age 4) and adults still in diapers, having meltdowns, bitting, and using aac for communication. I remember my mom first telling me I had Autism around that time

I did eventually figured out Autism is a spectrum and I would be classified as high functioning. I still didn't feel I could relate to the stereotypical high functioning autstic since people with hfa that i saw on tv tend to be super nerdy and socially inept. When Asperges became apart of the dsm v and grouped in with Autism, it made Autism much more relatable to me as someone whose pretty much only interacted with non-autstic people for much of my life. I did have learning challenges in school, but still did pretty well in school and have a college degree as someone with dysphrygia.

I think it's nice that more people with autism are being represented in every part of society, but we still viewed as little kids by neurotypicals even those of us with low support needs. We have a lot of improve, but hopefully we'll get to a place where Autism can be less stigmatized and more respected .

Fairly accurate description of the progress made and how far we still need to go.

Accept autistic people of course, but also accept autism is a disorder for most too, as the name suggests and different autistic people have varying opinions on their autism

That's the meaning of acceptance

Of course, the Dump and his bromantic partner Musky are doing their hardest to "Make Autism Terrifying Again".

Has anyone seen the video and preview for a book called "Born Lucky" written by a news anchor who has autism? Just the preview gives me the creeps.