What Autistic Pride Day means to me
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Written by autistic adult Willow
I only learned that the 18th of June was Autistic Pride Day rather recently.
Strangely, its existence initially surprised me. I suppose because, personally, I didn’t always have autistic pride.
I have been aware of the differences between myself and those around me since I was a child. I knew that I talked a bit too much, not always treating conversations as a two-sided affair. I was also aware that people didn’t always seem to feel as passionately about the subjects that I did, such as the in-depth lore of the television series Doctor Who. Admittedly, it baffled me as to why – how could they not find it as fascinating as I do?! Whenever I covered my ears in the presence of loud noises or potentially loud objects, such as balloons, I noticed that my peers did not. Although I commonly received above average results in my schooling, I struggled to do my work as quickly as my peers, or process my thoughts as fast.
When I was younger, these differences did not make me proud. They made me frustrated and embarrassed me. I felt like an alien (and not even a cool Doctor Who one).
It was at the age of fourteen that I was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Afterwards, several people asked me how I felt about the diagnosis, concerned that it had upset me. I think that they were surprised when I told them that I was not only glad to have been able to miss school for the appointments, but I was relieved and happy to have been given this diagnosis. Suddenly, the differences that I had always seen between myself and those around me made sense and had reasonable explanations. I wasn’t just bad at being like everyone else, my brain was actually wired differently – I was autistic.
So, I suppose Autistic Pride Day is special to me because it allows me to express the pride in my autism that had taken me so long to develop. It’s clear to me now that it would be impossible to take the autism out of me without fundamentally changing the core of who I am. The existence of Autistic Pride Day validates that and allows people like me to be proud of our cool brains.
Furthermore, Autistic Pride Day enables people like me to connect with others in the autistic community. Personally, I don’t know that many other autistic people in person, outside of my family, and there is something rather unique about interacting with another autistic person. I feel that we are often able to understand each other’s thinking more accurately and be more supportive of the things that we struggle with. In my opinion, it’s hugely important to be immersed in the autistic community, just as much as it’s important to be immersed in the every-day, largely neuro-typical community. In fact, often immersion in the autistic community can lead to autistic pride, as we’re able to see similar traits to our own in other people and know that while we are all different, we share a lot in common as well.
In the future, I can only hope that the autistic community is able to be better understood by the non-autistic society around us. As found in two 2018 studies commissioned by Amaze and conducted by the Australian National University and Australian Catholic University, 98% of Australians have heard of autism, however, only 29% said that they knew how to support an autistic person. Furthermore, only 4% of autistic people felt that the community knew how to support them. This lack of understanding of autism in the community can lead to wide-spread inaccurate stereotypes, and a lack of support and inclusive environments for autistic people.
In future, I hope to see a vaster amount of accurate representations of autism in both fictional and non-fictional media, more inclusive workplaces and schools, and a greater widespread understanding of autism and associated support strategies.
One step that Amaze is taking towards achieving this is by launching another Autistic Experiences Survey this year. Understanding autistic experiences is key to understanding the community. It can help to find out what people already know, and target areas of limited understanding with education. So, if you are able, please fill out the survey. Your participation may help us to work towards the autistic-friendly future that I am hoping for.
The survey can be found at the link below.