We live in a world filled with people that act and think differently, which provides great diversity and singularity to our surroundings. On some occasions, we consider people “strange” because they are too different, and they cannot adjust to the way we see the world.
This April 2, we will celebrate World Autism Awareness Day, which aims to draw attention to autistic people and know their reality. This promotes their inclusion in all spheres of society as citizens and the improvement of their life quality.
Many people with ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) face discrimination in every aspect of their lives due to the scarcity of knowledge and empathy. Both children and adults suffer problems at a social, educative, and working level as they are not sufficiently supported and are not allowed to participate in society in an equal way. These problems affect them and their families, who, sadly, see how their loved ones are treated differently based on prejudices and stereotypes.
In 2017, Libros de las Malas Compañías (Bad Companies Books) celebrated the call "people WITH AUTISM also count" to give visibility to autistic people and raise awareness about them. The winning illustrated album was our loved The Race by the author Charo Pita. This story focuses on three kids, Nino, Nana, and Nono, who are having a race. For them, the important thing is not who gets there first but to have fun playing and discovering that you can run in many ways.
(Video recorded by Charo Pita on April 2 2020)
Through this book, several kids were able to have fun while they learnt about autism, sometimes affectionately recognizing the traits of some of the characters, such as Nino, who presents some features of autism.
The Race has been included in the blog of the Autism Confederation Spain, emphasizing how the book tries to raise awareness about the reality of autistic kids.
We hope that, through this day, people can discover a little bit more about autistic people and can help them to integrate and participate in society. Both autistic children and adults can do what they set out to do, something that we can observe throughout various blogs and channels owned by autistic people or their family members. Let’s take The Race as an example and enjoy life together every day, no matter what way each of us “runs”.
María Brea Gutiérrez.
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