What meaning would you want it to have?
...
I'd say it is awareness for that autistic people are to be treated with respect for who they are and that autistic people should be allowed to be proud of being autistic.
Neurodiversity Awareness campaigns would be autism acceptance campaigns and could also be autism awareness without pity or anything but awareness that gives the feel of knowing autistic people, not making them look that scary anymore.
So maybe a neurodiversity awareness campaign would actually be movies with autistic characters and their families, maybe telling some of the struggles and pleasures that are met. Ofcourse there are many possibilities.
I think of it on a slightly broader scale, in which people recognize that it's possible to be neuroatypical without necessarily having a disease or disorder. This applies in a broad sense too, not just to autism.
No, that would be an Autism pride campaign.
Neurodiversity is NOT about autism! It's about ALL neurotypes. It's about NTs and aspies and LFAs and OCD and ADHD and Bipolar and on and on and on. It's about ALL of them being equal and natural but different ways of thinking and functioning. A true neurodiversity awareness campaign would be about how many different kinds of people there really are out there and how it's time we realized that all these different people need different things to be able to function well insociety, and that we all have something to bring to the world. It would not be about autism awareness. It would be about Neurodiversity awareness.
Ah, but if neurodiversity includes acceptance for all of the different diversities we would have to include the divergent aswell, which would probably be of more interest to ordinary folks that talk about "neurotypicalism".
For neurodiversity awareness, yes, it would be inclusive of all neurotypes and not just autistic neurotypes. I don't think of it as meaning so much that the neurodivergent are perfect the way we are and don't need to improve on anything, but I think more of it as meaning the acknowledgement that people are flawed, and the flaws of the neurodivergent (such as autistic social/communication difficulties, or ADHD attention difficulties) are no more flawed than the neurotypical population (who have many flaws, but these are so common that these are considered 'normal flaws'.
To me, I think it means acknowledging that human beings should not be considered lesser or greater for having more of less of the abnormal flaws and neutral characteristics, which are deemed to be so inferior to the common flaws and neutral characteristics.
So someone who is neurodiversity-aware would understand that someone who behaves oddly or has such-and-such disability is not someone deserving to be gawked at anymore than they are, but to be helped and appreciated as much as they would want if they were the one standing out or having troubles.
I just found the following which may help the quest, although in this case the pamphlet refers to disability....the concept is the same...just substitute AS or autistic for disabled, although many of the former are indeed disabled.
A new approach is needed to tackle on-going discrimination against disabled people: one that coherently leverages positive change as it emerges in society, rather than relying on legislation.
Unlike racism or sexism, you won’t find the word disablism in the dictionary. Yet ask any disabled person whether it has resonance for them and the word quickly takes on meaning.
This Demos pamphlet starts from the lived experiences of disabled people. Based on a series of interviews with disabled individuals and representatives of government departments and disability organisations, it argues that the current legislation-dominated approach to bringing about positive social change is only a start on the journey to eradicating the subtle – but sometimes life-destroying – impact of disablism.
For too long debates have started from the basis of what disabled people can’t do rather than what they can do, often much better than nondisabled people.
Rather than trying to solve inequalities one by one, Disablism makes the case for a different approach to achieving change. It recommends a strategy that does not always look to the courts or the government to make a difference. In order to eradicate discrimination, we need instead to understand how positive change emerges in society on multiple levels, at different speeds and involving different people. The challenge is to choreograph these components of change to ensure that they deliver a cumulative impact.
This pamphlet argues that trading zones – new models of collaborative participation between existing institutions – could accelerate the pace of change by bringing together diverse groups of people on an equal basis to challenge disablism, the prejudice with no name.
This project was funded by Scope and conducted in partnership with Disability Awareness in Action.