Why Autism Awareness Month is Exhausting (And What We Actually Need)
Bridgette Hamstead
Autism Awareness Month arrives every April, bringing with it a flood of campaigns, social media posts, and corporate initiatives claiming to support autistic people. Blue lights illuminate landmarks, puzzle piece imagery resurfaces, and companies roll out limited-time “awareness” efforts, often without any meaningful engagement with the autistic community. While these campaigns are framed as positive and necessary, for many autistic people, Autism Awareness Month is not a time of celebration. Instead, it is exhausting, frustrating, and often retraumatizing.
The problem with Autism Awareness Month is not the idea of raising awareness itself, but rather how it is executed. The dominant narratives surrounding autism during this time are outdated, pathologizing, and overwhelmingly centered on non-autistic perspectives. Major autism organizations, including those that receive the most visibility and funding, continue to frame autism as a disorder that needs to be managed, treated, or cured rather than a natural neurological difference. They promote messages that focus on the burden autism supposedly places on families, rather than the lived experiences of autistic people themselves. This type of “awareness” does not lead to acceptance or inclusion. Instead, it reinforces stigma, exclusion, and harmful stereotypes.
Much of the exhaustion autistic people experience during Autism Awareness Month comes from the sheer volume of misinformation that resurfaces each year. Campaigns frequently rely on fear-based statistics, such as the increasing prevalence of autism diagnoses, as though this is something to be alarmed about rather than an indication of better recognition and understanding. Statements about the supposed “epidemic” of autism persist, despite the fact that autism is not a disease and has always existed. The focus on early intervention and behavior modification often takes precedence over discussions about the rights, needs, and autonomy of autistic people throughout their lives. Instead of amplifying autistic voices, many awareness campaigns prioritize the perspectives of parents, professionals, and organizations that do not fully respect the neurodiversity movement.
One of the most frustrating aspects of Autism Awareness Month is the dominance of the color blue and the puzzle piece symbol, both of which are strongly associated with organizations that have a history of promoting harmful narratives about autism. Many autistic advocates and allies have long called for a rejection of these symbols in favor of the gold infinity symbol, which represents neurodiversity, or the use of red and gold as colors of solidarity. Yet, despite repeated efforts by the autistic community to reclaim the narrative, large corporations and mainstream organizations continue to push blue imagery and puzzle pieces without acknowledging the harm they cause. For autistic people, this means spending the entire month seeing symbols that represent a history of dehumanization, forced conformity, and erasure of autistic identity.
Beyond the symbols and messaging, Autism Awareness Month is exhausting because it often results in an influx of performative allyship. Many companies, schools, and institutions engage in one-time awareness activities without making any meaningful or lasting commitments to autistic inclusion. They may host a single event, share a post on social media, or donate to a problematic organization without taking the time to educate themselves on what autistic people actually want and need. In many cases, these efforts feel more like public relations exercises than genuine attempts to support the autistic community. The moment April ends, the conversation disappears, and autistic people are left with the same systemic barriers, ableist policies, and lack of accommodations as before.
What autistic people actually need is not more awareness, but acceptance, inclusion, and systemic change. Instead of passive awareness campaigns, workplaces, schools, and communities should be focusing on making environments more accessible to autistic people year-round. This includes ensuring that workplaces offer flexible accommodations without requiring employees to go through exhausting self-advocacy battles. It means schools shifting away from compliance-based behavior programs and embracing neurodiversity-affirming education. It requires healthcare providers to listen to autistic patients rather than dismissing or gaslighting them. True support for the autistic community does not come in the form of blue lights or puzzle-piece merchandise; it comes in the form of real action that improves our quality of life.
Autistic people need to be the ones leading conversations about autism. This means amplifying autistic voices, compensating autistic speakers and consultants for their expertise, and ensuring that autism-related policies and initiatives are informed by those with lived experience. When discussions about autism exclude autistic people or treat them as passive subjects rather than active participants, the result is ineffective and often harmful decision-making. If organizations, businesses, and advocacy groups genuinely want to support the autistic community, they need to listen to autistic people and follow their lead.
Another essential shift that needs to happen is the move away from a deficit-based model of autism toward a strengths-based, neurodiversity-affirming perspective. Too often, autism awareness campaigns focus solely on what autistic people struggle with, framing autism as a list of impairments rather than a different way of experiencing the world. This approach contributes to the widespread misunderstanding that autistic people are inherently broken or deficient, rather than individuals with unique strengths, perspectives, and contributions. When society begins to recognize and accommodate these differences rather than trying to "fix" them, autistic people can thrive.
The exhaustion of Autism Awareness Month is compounded by the emotional labor autistic advocates must take on every year to push back against misinformation, educate others, and fight for visibility. Many autistic people spend April repeatedly explaining why blue lights and puzzle pieces are harmful, why certain autism organizations should not be supported, and why inclusion matters beyond a single month of awareness. This labor is often unpaid, unacknowledged, and emotionally draining. Yet, without this constant effort, the same harmful narratives continue unchecked.
Autistic people deserve more than symbolic gestures and shallow campaigns. They deserve a world that values and respects them not just in April, but every day. Autism Awareness Month, in its current form, is not designed for autistic people—it is designed to make neurotypical people feel good about "supporting" autism without challenging their biases or taking meaningful action. The shift from awareness to acceptance is long overdue. It is time to move beyond outdated narratives and build a society that truly supports autistic people in all areas of life.