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Hi everybody! It's World Autism Awareness Day tomorrow 🧩.
From the Autism Speaks website:
Every April Autism Speaks celebrates World Autism Month, beginning with the United Nations-sanctioned World Autism Awareness Day on April 2. This year marks the 15th annual World Autism Awareness Day.
Throughout the month, we focus on sharing stories and providing opportunities to increase understanding and acceptance of people with autism, fostering worldwide support. This year, we are committed to creating a world where all people with autism can reach their full potential.
I thought it would be important to do a topic for this day on the community 😊.
Personally, I know of several people who have autism. They're great to be around, even though I'm sure they and the people in their lives have challenges unique to my own.
As I have limited experience to do with autism, I reached out to my friend, Jonny, who is a schoolteacher. For almost 10 years, he has worked and volunteered with cognitively challenged children and people. This, of course, has included a number of people with autism.
I simply asked him to share some of his thoughts on autism and World Autism Awareness Day.
"I didn’t know anything about autism or any neurodiversity before I worked at a summer camp serving people with disabilities. There I learnt about neurodiversity and lots of other things. I find autism interesting because of the wide spectrum it has. Autism awareness is important to educate people that some people process things differently than others and this can look abnormal in everyday life. I think accepting people who are neurodivergent is just as important, like Dr Temple Grandin said 'Different, not less.'"
Jonny was also nice enough to share a photo of his autism awareness tattoo with me 🧩.
Obviously, this topic is a bit more personal and not from O2 itself. I was just aware of the day and thought about how I could shine some light on the subject. Luckily, I have a friend like Jonny 😃.
If anyone would like to comment on Jonny's story or share their own, I'd love to hear them. He was pleasantly surprised when I asked him, so I'll make sure to share all replies with him.
Thanks!
