Are You Actually Including Autistic People on Your Autism Awareness Day?

by | Mar 28, 2022 | Corporate Culture

Image of text reading "World Autism Awareness Day" in stylized black lettering, accompanied by an autism awareness ribbon. The ribbon features a puzzle piece pattern in red, yellow, blue, and green.

As top leaders in the organizations embrace diversity while enriching their workforce, they have also opened doors for neurodivergent people, especially those with autistic talent. In this scenario, it is essential to use some special observances and events to signal community interest. The most crucial day for such organizations is Autism Awareness Day, celebrated every year on the 2nd of April worldwide. However, in reality, the experienced company leaders state that these efforts rarely match the intentions and may even strengthen the fear of autistic people coming forward.

It is observed that people outside the community of autistic members and their caretakers often follow contradictory information about this awareness. Even autistic people, their parents, and mainstream media may have several confusions about the symbolism and language. It ultimately leads to some dominating campaigns that can adversely impact autistic talents. Global Investment Strategies experts consider celebrating autism awareness day with a meaningful technique and adequate campaign.

Time to focus on inclusion instead of awareness

Experts state that forward-looking organizations can often perform much better instead of following some outdated approaches to celebrate autism awareness day. When you focus on acceptance and inclusion instead of creating awareness, it can bring considerable outcomes to the community, such as:

  • Developing positive viewpoints about autism in society.
  • Amplifying the vibrancy and strengths of the autistic culture.
  • Supporting inclusion in the workplace is a widely needed initiative as autism patients remain the most unemployed candidates after a college degree.

Below we have listed a few trusted techniques to update the concept of autism acceptance at your organization to achieve more impactful and practical outcomes.

Use symbolism and language of autism inclusion.

Although individual preferences may keep on varying, the neurodivergent adults often follow some shared symbols, traditions, and meanings that are considerably different from that of the organizational approaches. Although your efforts may not be 100% perfect in one go, it is good to develop an autistic-centric approach to lead a good starting point. You can start:

  • Include neurodiversity-inclusive imagery in the system with multicolored or golden infinity symbols.
  • Preferring identify-first language.
  • Replace the traditional cure language with enhanced support language to ensure acceptance and inclusion instead of awareness.
  • Consider celebrating Neurodiversity celebration week and autism pride day.

When you want to make them feel connected to your organization, it is essential to start including them in relevant event meetings and offer them to lead the preparations. Companies can also hire a creative autistic designer to prepare campaign-related materials. Other than this, it will be a great initiative to include the parents of autistic children in events. Once your organization starts amplifying an inclusive culture for autistic people, it will be easier to enjoy diversity in the workplace. In addition, these creative people can support the growth of an organization with their talent.