{"id":35130,"date":"2025-04-01T07:53:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T11:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/?p=35130"},"modified":"2025-03-26T12:27:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T16:27:39","slug":"april-observances-and-celebrations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/","title":{"rendered":"April Observances and Celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Health Sciences is pleased to recognize the following observances and celebrations for April:<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Autism Awareness Month<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>April 1-30, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/autismsociety.org\/autism-acceptance-month\/\">Autism Awareness Month<\/a> celebrates and honors the identities and experiences of Autistic individuals. The month aims to recognize that autism is more than just a diagnosis and that there are both challenges and triumphs for those with autism. It emphasizes understanding, inclusion, and support, and moving beyond awareness of the diagnosis and experiences to a meaningful acceptance in society and across the world.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Occupational Therapy Month<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>April 1-30, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aota.org\/events\/calendar\/ot-month#:~:text=Occupational%20Therapy%20Month&amp;text=Each%20April%2C%20AOTA%20is%20a,and%20driving%20awareness%20about%20it.\">Occupational Therapy (OT) Month<\/a> commemorates occupational therapy (OT) as a profession and the professionals that make it what it is. For 2025, the theme this year is, \u201cOccupational Therapy: Inspiring Hope, Changing Lives.\u201d It is also meant to bring public awareness to the profession.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>World Autism Awareness Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>April 2, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/observances\/autism-day\">World Autism Awareness Day<\/a> is celebrated this year with the theme of \u201cAdvancing Neurodiversity and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)\u201d which highlights the intersectionality between neurodiversity and global sustainability efforts and showcases how inclusive policies and practices can drive more positive changes for autistic individuals worldwide.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Medical Lab Professionals Week<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>April 20-26, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ascls.org\/lab-week-mlpw\/\">Medical Lab Professionals Week<\/a> (MLPW) recognizes the work of all departments and disciplines that medical laboratory professionals contribute to and play a vital role in patient advocacy.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Administrative Professionals Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>April 23, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On Administrative Professionals Day we recognize the contributions of all of our support staff.<span class=\"pjBG2e\" data-cid=\"7d1e7d71-632a-4f08-bdb3-dce040f43045\"><span class=\"UV3uM\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Health Sciences is pleased to recognize the following observances and celebrations for April: Autism Awareness Month April 1-30, 2025 Autism Awareness Month celebrates and honors the identities and experiences of Autistic individuals. The month aims to recognize that autism is more than just a diagnosis and that there are both challenges and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about April Observances and Celebrations\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56087,"featured_media":35131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>April Observances and Celebrations | Department of Health Sciences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"April Observances and Celebrations | Department of Health Sciences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Department of Health Sciences is pleased to recognize the following observances and celebrations for April: Autism Awareness Month April 1-30, 2025 Autism Awareness Month celebrates and honors the identities and experiences of Autistic individuals. The month aims to recognize that autism is more than just a diagnosis and that there are both challenges and &hellip; Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Health Sciences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNCHealthSciences\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-01T11:53:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations-.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amy McLemore\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UNC_AHS\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UNC_AHS\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amy McLemore\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amy McLemore\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#\/schema\/person\/714dad69320b8a28f98f909b275a92b1\"},\"headline\":\"April Observances and Celebrations\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-01T11:53:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":239,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations-.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/\",\"name\":\"April Observances and Celebrations | Department of Health Sciences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations-.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-01T11:53:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#\/schema\/person\/714dad69320b8a28f98f909b275a92b1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations-.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations-.png\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"Autism Awareness Month Occupational Therapy Month April 1-30, 2025 World Autism Awareness Day April 2, 2025 Medical Lab Professionals Week April 20-26, 2025\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"April Observances and Celebrations\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/\",\"name\":\"UNC Department of Health Sciences\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#\/schema\/person\/714dad69320b8a28f98f909b275a92b1\",\"name\":\"Amy McLemore\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d8b8346d1d05e47cd82634d3c37cae4d11774b72df2f6520a93e63d285dd4df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d8b8346d1d05e47cd82634d3c37cae4d11774b72df2f6520a93e63d285dd4df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Amy McLemore\"},\"description\":\"Allied Health - PT\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/author\/amymac78\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"April Observances and Celebrations | Department of Health Sciences","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"April Observances and Celebrations | Department of Health Sciences","og_description":"The Department of Health Sciences is pleased to recognize the following observances and celebrations for April: Autism Awareness Month April 1-30, 2025 Autism Awareness Month celebrates and honors the identities and experiences of Autistic individuals. The month aims to recognize that autism is more than just a diagnosis and that there are both challenges and &hellip; Read more","og_url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/","og_site_name":"Department of Health Sciences","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNCHealthSciences\/","article_published_time":"2025-04-01T11:53:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations-.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Amy McLemore","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UNC_AHS","twitter_site":"@UNC_AHS","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amy McLemore","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/"},"author":{"name":"Amy McLemore","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#\/schema\/person\/714dad69320b8a28f98f909b275a92b1"},"headline":"April Observances and Celebrations","datePublished":"2025-04-01T11:53:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/"},"wordCount":239,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations-.png","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/","name":"April Observances and Celebrations | Department of Health Sciences","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations-.png","datePublished":"2025-04-01T11:53:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#\/schema\/person\/714dad69320b8a28f98f909b275a92b1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations-.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations-.png","width":1080,"height":1080,"caption":"Autism Awareness Month Occupational Therapy Month April 1-30, 2025 World Autism Awareness Day April 2, 2025 Medical Lab Professionals Week April 20-26, 2025"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2025\/04\/april-observances-and-celebrations-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"April Observances and Celebrations"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/","name":"UNC Department of Health Sciences","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#\/schema\/person\/714dad69320b8a28f98f909b275a92b1","name":"Amy McLemore","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d8b8346d1d05e47cd82634d3c37cae4d11774b72df2f6520a93e63d285dd4df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d8b8346d1d05e47cd82634d3c37cae4d11774b72df2f6520a93e63d285dd4df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Amy McLemore"},"description":"Allied Health - PT","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/author\/amymac78\/"}]}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations-.png","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations--300x300.png","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations--768x768.png","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations--1024x1024.png","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/628\/2025\/03\/Observances-Celebrations--175x175.png","featured_image_alt":"Autism Awareness Month Occupational Therapy Month April 1-30, 2025 World Autism Awareness Day April 2, 2025 Medical Lab Professionals Week April 20-26, 2025","category_details":[{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56087"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35135,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35130\/revisions\/35135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}