The poet John Donne famously once wrote: “No man is an island.”

This is true for everyone, including different groups of disabled people and autistic people, in that we are different, sometimes overlapping communities in the same, wider expanse of humanity.  

This sentiment leads us to the fact that the National Autistic Society is marking the United Nations (UN) International Day of Persons with Disabilities.  

Not every autistic person considers themselves to be disabled, which can be a reason why some people don’t disclose that they are autistic, alongside the fear of stigma – whether at work or elsewhere.  

That’s okay, everyone has their journey and their identity.  

As someone who is autistic and has tinnitus in my right ear and anxiety, I consider myself disabled as well as being neurodivergent, it isn’t an either-or situation for me.

This year’s theme for the UN-led day of recognition is "Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future."  

Generally, though, this day provides a great space for reflection on and acknowledgement of where autistic and disabled people fit in the wider whole of humanity. Given that 16% of people worldwide are disabled, according to the World Health Organisation, that’s an estimated 1.3 billion people, including autistic people, with eighty per cent of disabled people living in developing countries.  

But why mark it? Let’s start off with some basic points.
 

Autistic and disabled people: Shared protections and issues   

Legally, autism is considered a disability under the Equality Act 2010 in the UK. Disability is a protected characteristic, which means there are protections under the law, including the right to reasonable adjustments.  

However, autistic people can have other disabilities. For instance, 33% of autistic people have learning disabilities, which aren’t inherent to autism, but it goes to show that there’s space to acknowledge different people’s experiences and needs.

Don’t forget neurodiversity, too, with some people having co-occurring neurodivergences. For instance, a commonly cited one is autism and ADHD.

Additionally, the issues that disabled people experience can overlap with the issues facing autistic people. For instance, in the UK, only 53% of disabled people are employed. With autistic people, this employment rate is even lower at 30%.  

It’s no accident that this day also sits in the middle of Disability History Month, which this year is focused on employment.  

But it’s not just challenges in employment.

The lack of public understanding is also a major issue, with one in six people in some countries “being beaten or scolded because of their disabilities”, according to the UN Disability and Development Report.   

These dreadful facts are also underscored by the brutal ghosts of history for the disability community, too.
 

Disabled people’s rights: are we making progress? 

Disability History Month sits in winter, a traditionally cold, dark time of the year, which is closely followed by Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday 27 January. For me, it is an important time to reflect on the pain that the disabled and autistic communities have experienced, including the hundreds of thousands of disabled and autistic people murdered by the Nazis. These deeply horrific and painful atrocities still speak to people’s fear today, fears of being eradicated or marginalised to the edges of society.  

So, we must acknowledge the shared fears and challenges that disabled and autistic people have, including being misunderstood by a society that has a painstakingly long way to go in including autistic people along with other disabled people. 

But as we mark International Day of Persons with Disabilities, then head towards Christmas and the New Year afterwards, it is also a time for a bit of hope in the darkness because the disability community has come a long way, with progress being made with and against the currents of wider humanity.

For instance, I went to the Paralympics, which took place in Paris earlier this year, where thousands of athletes from different countries declared they were there as competitors not merely ‘participants’. They finished with a celebration of the event but also a challenge to the city of Paris to improve its accessibility, particularly around public transport.  

In the same admittedly grim report by the UN that I referred to earlier, there were also flashes of positive signs of progress, including “Globally, in 2020, 34 per cent of persons with severe disabilities received cash benefits up from 27 per cent in 2016.” After all, benefits aren’t just a cost for countries, they’re also an indicator of how a state recognises the extra costs that disabled people contend with and helps ensure more people can live independently.  

Admittedly, it is a small comfort and well behind the UN’s own developmental goals, which it hopes to achieve in 2030. But it’s still slow, hard-fought incremental progress despite the need to accelerate progress, something the UN itself calls for.  

Finally, marking this day is also about affirming the legal protections that apply to disabled people, including autistic people, whether nationally (through the Equality Act 2010) or internationally.  

Aside from other international conventions, such as the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we also come under a convention that the UK has ratified along with 180 other countries called the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities.  

This convention states that disabled people must have their fundamental freedoms and human rights guaranteed, including the right to be included in the community (covered under Article 19), to be treated equally in society (covered under Article 5), and to work on an equal basis with others (covered under Article 27), among multiple others.  

So, for this year’s UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities and future ones to come, and for all the individual challenges that autistic people and their families experience, let’s recognise the pain and progress of the past and push for a brighter future.  

Let’s also recognise that our sometimes-singular autism community is one significant human thread woven together with other communities into a masterpiece: the tapestry of humanity where we all belong. On this small, tempestuous yet beautiful planet, which resides in a wider solar system and vast cosmos, that’s something to take comfort in.

Read more information about the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities.