What is the difference between awareness and acceptance, and why is it important?
Awareness – Knowledge or perception of a situation or fact
In disability terms, this can mean several things. It could simply mean that people are aware that a certain condition exists. They could have minimal knowledge on a condition and claim they understand the entirety of it. For instance, most people know about Epilepsy because of seizures. They don’t know how it impacts the individual, their families and how life has to be adapted. They don’t know all types of seizures and what each one entails. Awareness can always be extended.
When we strive to raise awareness for a condition, it is to offer accurate information so that people are more understanding. Once presented with the facts, people have options. They can ignore everything they know and if they see somebody with a certain condition in public, they can be ignorant and impatient. They can acknowledge the facts but belittle the condition and the person living with it. Other people can be fully understanding and put their knowledge into practice. These people are usually more patient and helpful and that is when awareness becomes acceptance.
Acceptance – Willingness to tolerate a difficult situation
To be accepting, one doesn’t necessarily have to be aware of a condition and what it entails. When it comes to accepting a disability, it doesn’t matter how much you know. All that matters is how willing you are to learn, help and tolerate.
I often find that people claim to know about my conditions but when presented with their reality, they are unaware on what to do or how to react. Many people say they are aware of Tourette’s. When I tic in public I often get nasty looks, stares and comments. This is because people claim they ‘know’ about Tourette’s, but they aren’t accepting. A good example is when I went to a comedy show, Stuart Francis into the punset, and the comedian made a joke about Tourette’s, showing that he is aware of the condition. Everybody laughed but, when my tics ramped up, they didn’t know how to react. They became cross and unsettled. I had stares and groans directed at me as everyone was leaving the venue. That isn’t acceptance.
Awareness Vs Acceptance - What's the difference?
To accept a condition takes work. It takes effort to defeat your own misconceptions and opinions in order to help an individual and do what is best for them.
If a person with Autism is struggling and you are only aware, you may walk past, tut and roll your eyes. If you are accepting, you might offer a friendly smile or ask if they want help.
Everybody has a limit to what they can cope with. This limit may be high and, as a result, your awareness may seem like acceptance. However, if someone’s condition got too difficult to manage, you might walk away or push it onto somebody else. If you were accepting, you would try your hardest to help or find help if you couldn’t offer it. You would be willing to find a solution and do whatever you could to put them at ease.
Many people I converse with claim to accept my Tourette’s. They seem to be both aware and willing to help me when challenges arise. However, they eventually reach their limit. This limit could be due to embarrassment and hence they hide from surrounding people. Another limit could be when the tics get difficult and more dangerous. People don’t want to deal with it, so they walk away. They push me somewhere else and place the problems onto someone else. If they were accepting, they would work with me to find a solution.
Many people use wheelchairs, this is a known fact. There is good awareness to wheelchair use, but this awareness isn’t put into practice. Some shops, for instance, don’t have a ramp to go up the steps. Some don’t have lifts and/or don’t lay the store out with enough room for maneuvering. Sometimes the layout of a place might make movement take longer periods of time, and some people can get frustrated by this. The thing is, people can see the wheelchair. They are aware of the reasons as to why somebody might take longer, but they don’t accept it. They don’t show patience, understanding or willingness to help.
The New Goal
Before, I was striving for awareness. I now realise that this world has a lot of that – what we lack is acceptance. People know about Tourette’s, Autism, Epilepsy, Physical Disabilities, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health etc. What they don’t know is how to react. They don’t understand and know how to show perseverance and acceptance. I wish to change that