...unacceptable...

 From our Team:

The Oxford Dictionary defines acceptance as:

1. the act of accepting a gift, an invitation, an offer, etc…

2.  the act of agreeing with something and approving of it

3. the process of allowing someone to join something or be a member of a group

4. willingness to accept an unpleasant or difficult situation

(accept is defined as: to take willingly something that is offered; to say ‘yes’ to an offer, invitation, etc -  to agree to or approve of something - to take payment in a particular form - to admit that you are responsible or to blame for something - to continue in a difficult situation without complaining, because you realize that you cannot change it - to make somebody feel welcome and part of a group - to believe that something is true -  to allow somebody to join an organization, attend an institution, use a service, etc.)

The current majority of society defines autism acceptance as:

1. contrived, of-the-moment, sympathetic acknowledgement of its causing great discomfort and hopelessness to families of autistic children

2. for-profit sales incentives, themed-product offerings, and donation-gathering for non-autistic serving/non-autistic led organizations

3. inspiration-porn: “a term coined by the late disability activist, Stella Young, refers to the objectification of people with disabilities in media, which serves the purpose of making the consumers, people without disabilities, feel good.” (credit:Inspiration Porn - AbleSC (able-sc.org)) and the pigeon-holing of autistic persons as being inhuman to the point of only existing as series of challenges to be overcome

4. educational and social programming full of empty words, promising a further understanding of or support of autistic children, families of autistic children, and educators of autistic children…while ignoring the very existence of autistic adults and drowning out the voice of the actually-autistic community by speaking over them or protesting that their manner of communication is too aggressive or stilted 

5. *bonus round* - one day in April ~ the month of April ~ a guilt-trip from the dead-eyed teenager scanning your discounts at the checkout register

Actual-Autistics (many, not all...yes, there is divergence in this community just as with any other) define acceptance as:

1. welcoming, seeking out and amplifying the voices and experiences of autistic people, particularly in identifying the actual support needs of the community
2. an end to the common-use infantilization of autistics
3. the death~cremation~and burial of ableism, once and for all
4. a hard stop on the action-based assumption that autistics have any desire to "pass" as typical and, relatedly, for the world over to become a safe-space in which we can unmask
5. the fearmongering (aimed at parents of autistic children with the goal of increased financial output into quack therapies: often dangerous, sometimes life-threatening, and most often traumatic) to be deemed criminal and those who practice it appropriately penalized
6. release from the standards of typical societal expectation and acknowledgment as being of equal value no matter our form of communication or our coping strategies
7. societal, if not celebration then at the very least reaction-less observation of stimming and encouragement to continue what works for each individual (so long as it is lawful) and provision of physically-safe stimming substitutes for those of us who self-harm without meaning to
8. acknowledgment of autistic burn-out and alternative work environments and schedules, both as applied to the job-force and to education

...need we go on???

Perhaps this list is dauntingly impossible...impassible...enough.

After all, if we're still asking for it in 2022?