April 2nd of each year marks a day of recognition of the millions of people worldwide who live with Autism. It is meant to raise awareness of the incredible challenges that people on the Autism Spectrum face and to increase understanding of this disorder. Insofar as it does that, it is most certainly a good thing. But that can never be enough. Instead the enlightened among us who advocate that we should just all accept our brokenness, have decided that it should be renamed “Autism Acceptance Day.” Gone is the symbol of the Autism Puzzle Piece, sacrificed to the gods of political correctness, and replaced by the rainbow infinity symbol for neurodiversity. What has always been recognized as a disorder, is now celebrated as being “differently ordered” (Fr. James Martin would be proud). Despite the best of intentions, this will only result in the worst of outcomes for people with Autism and someone must set the record straight.
Normalizing the Abnormal
The movement to normalize the abnormal and naturalize the unnatural is one of the most pernicious evils of our time. Autism is not natural nor is it just “different.” It is, as the clinical name suggests, a disorder. It is the cause of a great deficit in the person’s life, handicapping their ability to give and receive love, communicate with other people and to see the world accurately. Not only that, but it is usually accompanied by a whole gamut of other medical and mental health issues including sleep disorders and anxiety. Only the most cold-hearted of people would be willing to “accept” Autism knowing that people with Autism suffer greatly, often in silence, solely because of it. Perhaps the fact that they want acceptance of Autism says more about them than it does about Autism.
It is so much easier to tell someone they are OK than to get involved in making them better. This is why I find professional therapists who advocate for “Accepting Autism” particularly puzzling. If Autism is something we should accept, then why do we give them any therapy at all? Why would we teach them social skills, help them with their sensory challenges, and improve their communication if they are just fine? It is apathy at best. Just one more thing for us to show faux concern about and drop a pinch of incense to the Twitter god.
It might be the case that what they really mean is that we should be more accepting of people with Autism. Of that, there can be no disagreement. Because Autism is often out of sight, it is out of mind so that people fail to recognize that the person in front of them is afflicted with it. Having a general awareness of how it manifests itself and habitually giving people the benefit of the doubt constitutes an act of compassion. But the approach of “accepting” Autism actually has the opposite effect.
The more you paint it with the “normal” brush, the more you open the door to intolerance. For society to properly function, it must operate under a set of norms to facilitate cooperation and communication. Norms keep us from descending into chaos. Those who are capable of following those norms, we label as normal and we set our expectations likewise. When an otherwise normal person does not adhere to the norms we must not tolerate it. Now, when a person is unable to adhere to the norms, like say if they have Autism, then they must be met with compassion. If you were to remove the “label” of disability, what is naturally expected of the other person rises and far from acceptance, the person finds nothing but rejection. What our innovators are suggesting then harms way more than it helps in the long run.
A New Movement
And this is why rather than accepting “Accepting Autism”, we should start a counter movement “Tolerating Autism”. No matter how hard we try, we have to admit that Autism is a bad thing. We should never accept bad things, only tolerate them. We can never accept Autism but only tolerate it because the person who labors under the Cross of Autism is a beautiful and uniquely unrepeatable thing. There may have been good things that came about because of their encounter with this disorder, but that is never a reason to accept it. People who suffer from cancer often experience positive personal growth, but that would never mean we should accept cancer. And just like we do with cancer, we should continue to work to eradicate Autism.
Despite protestations to the contrary, our culture is absolutely obsessed with labeling people. We label according to race, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, you name it. The label then becomes the identity rather than something that forms who the person is. People often rail against the notion that Autism is a bad thing because they see it somehow as a personal attack. But that is to fall into the trap of defining a person by a label. There are no autistic people, only people with Autism because Autism can never fully define who a person is. They are so much more than simply repetitive behaviors and compromised social skills. This is also why people advocate for the removal of the puzzle piece symbol because “I am not a puzzle piece.” Well, in truth, you are not a rainbow infinity sign either. The symbol is only a label for the person if you identify them with their condition. Otherwise it is simply a symbol for a thing.
Tolerate Autism? For the time being. Accept Autism? Never.