An advocate hopes to move people from autism awareness to acceptance this April.
Alex Kronstein says the conversation around autistic people needs to change.
He says awareness campaigns designed by non-autistic people are insufficient and can be harmful.
“The effect of autism awareness is that it ends up promoting even more stigma against us and it just encourages non-autistic people to think about ways they can try to make us pass as non-autistic.”
Kronstein is concerned when autism messages are shared on social media this month, the people sharing don’t truly understand autism.
He says acceptance is more inclusive and is in line with his community’s motto of: nothing about us, without us.
Kronstein is concerned the discussion during the month centers around parents and treats autistic people as props.
“You don’t hear from them at all. That’s a big problem. What a non-autistic person can do is know when to stay in their lane. Know when to step aside and let autistic adults have the mic.”
Kronstein is currently working on a film about Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), an approach being called into question by autistic adults who underwent the treatment as children.
He wants to bring their stories to a large audience to begin to highlight some of the issues faced by autistic people.
