10 Issues People Want to Shed a Light on for Autism Awareness Month

For Autism Awareness Month this April, we asked members of our Mighty community: “What’s one issue you’d like to shed a light on for autism awareness? We’ve included some of their responses below.

“Just because when I was a kid I acted differently than I do now as an adult doesn’t mean I don’t have autism anymore. I’ve just learned new ways to cope and accept it.” — Arianna Lea Nyswonger

“After many meetings with all the therapists sitting around, talking about all the things wrong, all the reports in your hand and tears in your eyes, I wished, can’t you just stamp ‘awesome kid’ on the top of these papers? I said that to his doctor one day, and she said a diagnosis doesn’t take away from how awesome my child is. Parents need to know it does not take away from the awesome, beautiful child you have.” — Rachel Laso

“Every child is totally different, even children in the same family. Girls are also on the spectrum. And just because your friend of a friend’s child has autism does not mean that my child will act the same.” — Victoria Meyr Campbell

“We need to see the person and not assume if we know one person with autism, we know all people with autism.” — Donna Lankford

“There is a total lack of services for autistic adults ranging from job placement, independent living and healthcare.” — Nell Rus

“Before we knew we were different, we thought we were doing things ‘correctly.’ What seems like misbehavior is most likely confusion and frustration.” — Andrea Davis

“I would like people to stop trying to un-diagnose my son if they have no training or experience with autism. Please don’t try and convince me his diagnosis means nothing because he can make eye contact with you.” — Jonathan Wuori

“As an adult who has a late diagnosis of autism living in Australia, there is virtually no support. All funding, as well as most services, is aimed at kids. Those services that are aimed at adults are expensive.” — Chris Ison

“There is a wide variety of people on the spectrum. Nobody ‘looks autistic.’” — Rebecca Huff

“We are humans who still love, feel pain, achieve, fail and have dreams, desires and passions like anyone else.” — Pat Hamm

Editor’s note: Answers have been edited and shortened for brevity and clarity.

What would you add to this list? Share with us in the comment section below.