Autism Soccer: And Straight on Till Morning: A Book of Acceptance

The road to support autistic individuals is not a path of awareness, but acceptance.

In the world of autism, there are two relevant concepts, acceptance and awareness. Each of them plays a major role in the perception of this disorder.

The difference between concepts

On the one hand, awareness implies knowledge; it's well informed about a situation and being able to discern. As for autism, it is to know about the existence of the disorder; it's possible consequences and its manifestations. On the other hand, acceptance is the faculty that has a person to admit another person, his peculiarities, and thoughts. In the case of autism is to consider it as something more than a disorder and know that it exists; it’s to be involved and act according to the exigencies of this situation.

The importance

As you can see, there is a clear difference between awareness and acceptance. The latter is gaining increasing relevance due to the large number of diagnoses that occur each year: according to the World Health Organization, one in 160 children is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. It’s for this reason that more and more autistic people and allies dedicated to going beyond awareness; it’s an initiative that promotes the image of the citizens with autism as part of the community, a part that must be included and accepted.

The book: And Straight on Till Morning

It’s for this purpose that the book And Straight on Till Morning: Essays on Autism Acceptance is released. It is a compilation of several writings in the context of the Autism Acceptance Month, edited by the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), that seeks to collaborate with a campaign to change the discourse of the autism month. They want to move from the month of awareness to the month of acceptance, as awareness is just the first step to achieve the integration of the autistic people.

There are several types of writings in the book. Some essays are focused on the difference between awareness and acceptance, and to why acceptance is better. Likewise, you can find papers on important cases, such as McCollins guardian v. Von Heyn et al trial, in which an autistic person suffered damages due to the mistreatment of relatives or other fellow citizens

The idea of the book is not to confront the two concepts, awareness and acceptance, but to make people understand that today it takes more than awareness for people with autism to be seen as an active member of society.

The way to achieve a united and peaceful society is to educate the citizens of the world and teach them to understand and accept everyone equally. If you want to know more about autism and the truths about the disorder that few people know keep in contact with Autism Soccer through their social networks.