April 2nd marked World Autism Awareness Day. On this occasion, Autism-Europe officially launched its new multiannual ‘Not Invisible’ campaign at the European Parliament, ahead of the European elections. We spent the first week of April at the Parliament welcoming Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and other key stakeholders to an information stand. We answered questions and raised awareness about the barriers faced by autistic people in exercising their rights, as well as key areas of priority for the autism community.
.
What happened at the European Parliament?
The official launch event for the #AutismNotInvisible campaign took place on the 3rd of April. The event featured MEP Rosa Estaras who gave an opening speech. Followed by Autism-Europe Director, Aurelie Baranger who invited MEPs to sign AE pledge “to indicate their commitment to cooperate with autistic people and their representative organisations, and to support the implementation of the UN CRPD across all EU policies”. Finally Cristina Garcia Corvillo, the President of MASqueTEA, an Autism association of the Balearic Islands, encouraged autism visibility. She gave voice to issues such as stereotyping and the lack of understanding of the diversity of autism across the population.
“Let’s open societies eyes so that it can understand and adapt to the autistic people in front of them”
.
The pledge and focus on the upcoming EU elections
With the European Parliamentary elections coming up in June, the #AutismNotInvisible campaign has a focus on promoting autism visibility in the European elections for 2024. We invited the MEPs that came to speak with us to sign our pledge. This pledge represents a commitment by election candidates to support autistic people’s rights in their future mandate. The signatories have committed to, among other things, upholding the recent European Parliament Resolution on harmonising the rights of autistic people.
Autism-Europe now has the support of 27 MEPs and 19 pledge signatories, 13 of whom are confirmed to be running for re-election.
Don’t forget it is still Autism Awareness month and plenty of time before people across Europe take to the polls! This means there is still time to use the #AutismNotInvisible motto to highlight the needs of autistic people and to motivate your MEP candidates to support us and sign our pledge. Autism should not be invisible in any space. Autistic people deserve recognition, understanding, acceptance and full enjoyment of their rights, in line with the UNCRPD. More information – and communications tools in 16 languages – can be found in our campaign toolkit.
