April is Autism Acceptance month, and we wanted to highlight a few organizations that celebrate neurodiversity and advocate for autistic rights every day. Check out their websites for a variety of resources related to neurodiversity and autism acceptance.

• Autistic Self Advocacy Network’s website provides a brief review of the origin of Autism Acceptance month as compared to Autism Awareness. Autism Acceptance Month was created by and for the autistic community to change the conversation around autism to follow their motto “Nothing about us, without us!” ASAN highlights strides in ensuring a welcoming community for individuals with autism but points out that “acceptance is an action” and we all have a role to play, starting with listening to and looking to individuals with autism for information to guide decision-making. The website provides a variety of resources including self-advocacy toolkits on a variety of topics. ASAN notes that some groups of individuals may find it more difficult to be recognized and diagnosed with autism, including females and people of color, which brings us to another important resource: Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network.
• Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network has “a mission to provide community, support and resources for Autistic women, girls, transfeminine and transmasculine nonbinary and genderqueer people, trans people of all genders, Two Spirit people, and all others of marginalized genders.” As the mission statement implies, AWN Network provides information and resources for various groups, with options to download an AWN Network Welcome Packet and Parent Welcome packet through the Resource Library Link.
• The Ed Wiley Autism Acceptance Lending Library was developed “to promote understanding, acceptance and inclusion for Autistic people. [Their] organization is dedicated to the ideas of neurodiversity, social justice, Autistic/Disabled Pride and disability rights.” In addition to their lending library for the communities of Stanwood and Camano Island, WA, they also provide links for helpful handouts, featuring the Neurodivergent Narwhal, which expands their outreach. Be sure to check out the blog where the author provides great insight into how to support autistic individuals.

Happy Autism Acceptance month!