Does using blue bucket at Halloween indicate autism? Fact Check

A message spreading online claims that someone carrying a blue bucket during Halloween trick-or-treating festivities is likely to be autistic, and the blue bucket is intended to indicate that.

MISLEADING

The claim is mostly false, and derived from a 2018 message from the mother of an autistic man who wanted to inform her local community that her son would be carrying a blue bucket when out trick or treating.

A few days before Halloween 2018, Alice Plumer posted on Facebook a message directed at her local area that her 21 year old son BJ would be out trick or treating while carrying a blue Halloween pumpkin bucket that indicated that he had autism.

Soon after making the post and making it public, it accumulated many thousands of shares.

Trick or Treat….the BLUE BUCKET…if you see someone who appears to be an adult dressed up to trick or treat this year carrying this blue bucket, he’s our son! His name is BJ & he is autistic. While he has the body of a 21 year old, he loves Halloween. Please help us keep his spirit alive & happy. So when you see the blue bucket share a piece of candy. Spread awareness! These precious people are not “too big” to trick or treat.

However the message was soon copied by others and subsequently changed to remove references to 21 year old BJ to make it appear more generic, giving the false impression that carrying a blue bucket is meant to indicate that someone has autism. The altered text can be seen below.

AWARENESS: Trick or Treat….the BLUE BUCKET…if you see someone who appears to be an adult dressed up to trick or treat this year carrying this blue bucket, they might be Autistic. While they may have the body of a 21 year old, they love getting dressed up for Halloween. So when you see the blue bucket share a piece of candy. Spread awareness! These precious people are not “too big” to trick or treat.

The problem is that while Plumer had used the blue bucket for her own son and local community, a blue bucket used to indicate autism is not a campaign that is universally recognised. None of the leading entities that deal with autism mention blue buckets (rather suggesting the use of stickers or badges) and online searches reveal nothing other than Plumer’s original post.

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In fact Plumer mentioned in a comment on her original post that she did not know if the blue bucket was intended for any particular purpose –

I’m not sure if they made them for this purpose, but LISA saw the blue and had read about the Teal Pumpkin Project and thought about it for BJ.

In the above comment she refers to the Teal Pumpkin Project, which is a real campaign that uses decorative blue pumpkins to indicate that a house will be giving out allergen-free treats to trick-or-treaters. It could be argued that an existing campaign which bears so much of a resemblance to the idea of carrying blue buckets to indicate autism would likely lead to confusion, lessening the chance that it would ever lead to being a universally accepted campaign.

Of course using blue buckets may become more recognised in the future to signify autism sufferers, but as yet this has not happened.