There are now well over 200 official “health awareness days” in the US, and many more unofficial ones. Autism is included on that list; April has served as Autism Awareness Month since the 1970's, and April 2nd is designated as World Autism Day.

Since more than two million people in the US have an autism diagnosis (and tens of millions worldwide), most people are now aware of autism. Most people know someone with autism and have heard about the skills, challenges, and needs of those in the community.

Awareness has helped bring these stories and issues to the forefront and continued awareness campaigns do help to keep the autism community, if even for a day, in the spotlight.

But we are aware. And with almost every day bringing about a new health awareness day, the spotlight shifts - yet the needs remain. So it is time to move beyond awareness and call for action.

It is a kind gesture when someone changes their social media profile for a day or shares an awareness post. And these gestures do raise the profile of the cause and the sponsoring organizations. But there are many things that we all can do that can have a profound and immediate impact on the lives of people with autism and their families.

So this April, we call for an Autism Action Month. Sign our pledge to do one or more of the following and have a direct and positive impact on the autism community (links for more information are included):

• Include people with autism in your social gatherings
• Teach your children about autism
• Support employment for people with autism
• Participate in research to help advance the understanding and support of people with autism
• Donate to support programs for people with autism
• Promote programs for siblings of children with autism
• Promote programs for post-secondary education for people with autism
• Volunteer to support the local autism community
• Donate to support research in autism
• Advocate for appropriate health care coverage and rights for people with autism

This list is just the beginning, but if we use this month to make people aware of these needs and they pledge to take action on even one of them, it will be a huge step for the entire autism community.

So sign and share this pledge today and help spread a call to action for autism!

Visit this link for more information on the actions items listed above.

Note: A donation request for iPetition will pop up after you sign the pledge. This is a donation request from and for iPetition. These funds do not go to The Johnson Center or any autism organization. If you want to make a tax-deductible donation to The Johnson Center click here.