Introduction

Haley Moss Esq has been selected to be the 2022 recipient of the IDA’s Impact Award. Haley has been chosen based upon her incredible advocacy and passion as a neurodiversity and disability expert and champion. Haley’s ability to share her own journey of living with autism as a nationally recognized  speaker, author, consultant and attorney has had a tremendous positive impact on so many people living with the challenges and misunderstandings of disability, autism and neurodiversity themselves.

Haley Moss’s Acceptance Speech

Hello, everyone! My name is Haley Moss and I am so honored to be this year’s Impact Award winner. I often think about what it means to be able to make an impact in our disability communities, and for me, making an impact means hopefully using my story and my journey and the things that I have been through in order to make things better for somebody else and for the lives of others.

Making an impact is huge. You do not know the weight that your story carries, the way that it might be able to change somebody else’s life.

Overcoming the Narrative

See, when I was first diagnosed with autism, my parents were given the doom and gloom. They were told about everything that would be hard for me, the things that I would never accomplish, that made a huge impact on them. They were scared at first, but thankfully, they believed in me.

And with their help, with their support, and them advocating alongside me every step of the way, I was able to make it to where I am today. I was able to become an attorney. I was able to become an author, to nourish my creative inclinations, to be able to do anything that I wanted to do, and that’s what I’m hoping for the next generation.

Redefining Disability and Deconstructing Barriers

A lot of what I do revolves around neurodiversity, really celebrating the differences in our brains and how our minds work. That’s something that I hope to continue doing and the impact that I want to make.

I hope that the next generation of neurodivergent people don’t have to face the same barriers that I did, that as a society, we’re able to deconstruct those, that we’re able to make it so that the most disabling thing for each of us is not the disability that is seemingly non-apparent to people around us, but that the most disabling thing is no longer our society and the obstacles placed in our paths of the amount of times I’ve had to deal with something that might be inaccessible or an opportunity that’s been denied.

A Call to Action for Community Impact

I’m very excited for what the future looks like, and I would truly like to thank each and every one of you for being a change maker, for making an impact just by being here and helping support people like me and others with invisible or non-apparent disabilities.

I am truly excited and hope that you will also choose to make an impact and use your power and privilege for good because each of us has something that we can do and something to offer our communities to make them a better place. Thank you so much.