From awareness to acceptance 

Why we changed the name

In 2021, based on your feedback, we changed the name of our fundraising campaign to World Autism Acceptance Week (from World Autism Awareness Week). Thank you to everyone who helped with this.

We’ve come a long way in the past 60 years, and today almost everyone has heard of autism. But far too few people understand what it’s actually like to be autistic – both the strengths you can have and how hard life can be at times. 

 No one should feel judged for being autistic or have to wait many months or even years for a potentially life-changing diagnosis, vital help and support. We need society to change. Autistic children, adults, and their families just want to be understood, supported and accepted in their communities, schools and workplaces.  

After this name change, it’s brought about a conversation that gets us all thinking about how society still needs to make changes to support autistic people. We think it’s important to keep that conversation going for 2023.