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Strategies for Teaching Based on Autism Research

April 2025 Newsletter | Autism Acceptance Month: Advocacy, Allyship, and Inclusion

HomeApril 2025 Newsletter | Autism Acceptance Month: Advocacy, Allyship, and Inclusion

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Autism Acceptance Month: Advocacy, Allyship, and Inclusion  

April is Autism Acceptance Month! This month is a time to reflect on how we can foster a society that values and supports autistic individuals. It’s not just about awareness—it's about action. As the Autistic Self Advocacy Network states, “Autism acceptance is not just a buzzword—it is an action. It means changing how society thinks about autism, respecting the rights and humanity of all autistic people, and aligning advocacy and research priorities with the priorities of the autistic community.”

This month offers an important opportunity to amplify education and understanding, ensuring that all individuals—especially those with autism—are seen, heard, and supported.

empowering self-advocacy

Empowering Self-Advocacy

Empowering students to understand and communicate their needs, desires, and rights contributes directly to improving access to opportunity: Self-advocacy can lead to greater success in education, employment, relationships, and overall life satisfaction. While the process of learning to advocate often begins with education, observation, and practice, for many autistic learners, this process is supported by direct, evidence-based self-advocacy instruction.

  • Introduce Autism Acceptance Month using this discussion story (English | Español) and have a conversation about ways to acknowledge the month.

  • Help students explore their own identities with activities like the "All About Me" worksheet (English | Español). This activity allows students to reflect on their preferences and share them with others, reinforcing self-awareness at home, school, and in the community.

  • Identify skills that can be nurtured from a young age, starting with basics like language development, choice-making, and recognizing preferences.

The Autism Self Advocacy Network also offers a digital book on autism acceptance that provides additional tools to empower students and foster understanding.

celebration

Meaningful Advocacy, Allyship, and Inclusion

Advocacy involves recognizing the rights of individuals and advocating for their needs. For students with autism, advocacy means ensuring that their voice is heard and their needs are met.

Allyship means actively supporting others in the pursuit of equity and inclusion. It’s not enough to be passively aware—true allyship requires action. It involves acknowledging and addressing prejudice and discrimination while standing alongside those who need support.

Inclusion ensures environments where everyone, regardless of ability, can participate and engage. It can often mean prioritizing not speaking for others but finding ways to amplify their voices.

Want to practice advocacy, allyship, and inclusion? Give these strategies a try!

  • Be willing to challenge the status quo: Recognize when someone’s perspective is not recognized, and connect with that person directly to learn how you can support them, especially as an advocate in group settings.
  • Consider inclusion in your spaces and meetings: Think about how those with various disabilities can navigate and learn in the environment, and design and plan with accessibility in mind.
  • Gather input through interest surveys to ensure that materials and systems reflect diverse experiences, backgrounds, and abilities.
  • Use a collaborative approach to setting up support. Tools like our IEP/transition planner (English | Español) help ensure that students’ interests, strengths, and goals are central to their educational journey. These ideas can be generalized to other support systems and transition processes, too.

One of the most important aspects of inclusion is allowing students to be active participants. Whether it’s helping with classroom tasks or making decisions about their learning, giving students the opportunity to engage meaningfully empowers them. This “do with, not for” approach helps students build independence, reduces frustration, and fosters a sense of accomplishment.

Tips for Inclusion in Action:

  • Involve students in every phase of a task: planning, execution, and cleanup.
  • Keep materials consistent and accessible.
  • Allow students to take the lead—observe and adjust to their pace.
  • Provide plenty of processing time for students to reflect and respond.

Celebration

Autism Acceptance Month is an opportunity to commit to lasting change. By advocating for self-advocacy, building strong allyship, and fostering inclusion, we can work toward a world where everyone feels accepted, respected, and empowered.

This April, we hope you’ll join STAR Autism Support in celebrating and prioritizing autistic voices as we learn about and practice advocacy, allyship, and inclusion. Want to learn more?