Regarding "autism acceptance", it means for the society/NT to accept autistic people, right? How about the opposite, does autistic people accept other people (NT, society, etc) as well?
Speaking for myself and the many other active advocates with whom I have discussed variants of this question, the "acceptance" we strive for has
never been one sided. "Equality" is the concept at the centre of all our efforts.
Autistic people are already
forced to accept majority culture and fit in with it as much as we are capable by masking. Accepting that the majority think and process differently than us is not a choice, it's a necessity of survival. The intention of advocates is to shift that one-sided situation towards a more balanced one wherein the majority understand that their behaviour and communication towards us could be better too, rather than pushing us out of the conversation because we don't "fit in" with their expectations.
I always talk about "meeting halfway" which entails compromise on BOTH sides. At the moment the autistic side of the communication equation is usually doing
all the bending to accommodate the customs and communication preferences of the NT majority. Acceptance would comprise of the other side bending as well so that we find common ground in which we could all communicate and prosper together far more effectively.
"
Awareness" is just knowing we exist. People now know that there are autistic people all around them. They have a little basic knowledge of what autism might be, but that knowledge is incomplete, often prejudicial and tainted by the multi-billion dollar cure/therapy industry to whom we are nothing but a resource to exploit.
Acceptance entails a process of enhancing awareness to a level where autistic experiences, understanding and opinions about our lives and futures are valued as much, if not more than those of non-autistic observers. Doing so will enable us to put that awareness to use so that we all work together on as equal a footing as possible.
There is no doubt that just like there are NT dogmatists who want things all their own way, there are also autistics who don't believe they should have to accommodate the quirks of the neural majority too. They are the supremacists, separatists and the cure-fetishists who do little more than attempt to tear down the bridges others are building.
Social change is slow and may not demonstrate it's full benefit until future generations. Those who have little patience or who care more for their own needs than others may seek more radical paths. Thankfully such people are a minority though like all dogmatists and bigots, they sometimes shout very loud.
