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AUTISTIC! is the term offensive?




Steve www.adultswithautism.org.uk

AUTISTIC! is the term offensive?

Should you call someone autistic? When I was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism in 2008, I was told that I was definitely autistic by the psychologist. I don’t know why, but the word autistic sounded like a throw back to the days when the word retarded was acceptable for people with a learning disability. In fact words such as retarded, abnormal and maladjusted were used to describe children like me many years ago, I remember it well!.

As someone with autism, I always feel embarrassed about describing myself as autistic. It sounds more of a disabling condition than having autism.

Perhaps it’s because autistic sounds a bit like, (sorry for any offence caused), the term spastic. In the UK we had The Spastic Society, now called SCOPE, the leading charity for people with Cerebral Palsy. So they have decided to go with a more politically correct name.

Then we have the UK’s, National Autistic Society. Should they change their name to The National Autism Society? Why do acceptable words become unacceptable and even offensive over time? Perhaps ten years from now, it will be offensive to say that someone has autism. We could instead describe ourselves as developmentally different. We would then be people with DD!

So what’s in a name? It just depends on what society deems to be the accepted terminology and politically correct language at any given time.

Are you offended when called autistic?

Thanks for reading- Steve

www.adultswithautism.org.uk

 

 

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15 responses

  1. What I feel is offensive is the word Disorder at the end of ASD, as I don’t believe that being Autistic is in any way a disorder – yes it may add challenges to ones life, but no person with or without Autism is less important, valuable, adequate or inadequate than someone without autism, or who is neuro-typical. Autistic people, in my view, are very interesting, have a lot of knowledge about key subjects important to them, from which we can all learn, and can be as or even more highly skilled than someone without autism. The word disorder gives a negative connotation I feel, undermining & disrespecting people on the spectrum.

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  2. Hello there, I’ve just recently been diagnosed with HFA at 23, I’m now 24 and at my current job I had to make my manager/HR aware and they asked how I view ASD, whether it’s a condition I have or something that I am.
    To be completely truthful, I feel that something which plays such a massive part in everything I do down to my thought patterns and the integral parts of my behaviour, basically all the things that make me Karen, can’t just be classed as a condition I have, it’s me.
    So in short, I’m autistic, which isn’t the same as having autism. I’m autistic in the same way I’m female, it’s something I don’t control that’s always going to stay a part of me!

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  3. Nope. I’m not at all offended by being called ‘Autistic’.

    See, I’m also female. Notice what I just did there? I’m female – not a person with femaleness. Calling myself a female doesn’t mean that I think my sex defines me.

    It’s not that I’m offended by ‘person with autism’, either. I just think it’s silly. ‘Person with femaleness’ level of nonsense, again.

    I have far better things to do with my life.

    I’m offended by people who insist I use person-first language to refer to myself. But that’s not about terminology, that’s about insentience.

    I’m offended by people that need to use person-first language to see me as a person. That’s making your issue my problem to solve. Uh…no, that’s your issue and your problem to solve.

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  4. I don’t like any sort of label or name full stop I know I think and act differently to others but see no need to go to anyone about it (not saying that it’s a bad thing for others it’s only my opinion) especially as if you do end up getting labeled it never seems to be a good thing in my eyes

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  5. The removal of Aspergers from the DSM V was troubling for two reasons. First, the Aspie identity had become quite recently extremely helpful to succinctly describe things that had been so enigmatic to everyone around me for so long. Second, they didn’t ask any of us what we thought. It just enhanced the doctrinal overlord status of the innumerable misdiagnosis of nightmares past. That being said, I’ve come to embrace it, for the distance between those of higher function & the Rainman character is often misleading. We all have that inner Rainman. The distinction is that we have the intelligence to suppress it, often resulting in an interminably exhausting, depressing and anxiety filled state of existence. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind getting a bit of credit for that. Our fear of impinging on society makes us that much more aware, often with a far greater sense of justice and kindness, but all the result of an intensely constant observational scrutiny that leaves a person drained from even the the most brief experience. And when the meltdown comes, which it inevitably will, we have the awareness & consideration to at least attempt to hide it, to protect others, their discomfort taking precedence over our sheer terror & computational overload. Yes, dammit. I am autistic. But they wouldn’t notice it if I didn’t tell them, because I have worked that hard just to make them not feel weird. It never works well enough, because ‘normal’ requires a distinct lack of precisely that level of self reflection. So I tell everyone, straight away, proudly & often with a brief schooling, ie “So, yeah, that thing you wanna do involving eye contact & uncertainty, don’t go stupidly gettin’ surprised when I’m not exactly rockin’ the Casbah’s at it to everyone’s bizarrely specific desire,” and yes, I do say things outloud in such phrasing. I’m HFA. It’s just one of the many exceptional ways we roll. Own it!

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  6. > Somehow I felt that saying “I’m a person with autism” sounded more politically correct.

    That’s what the NT researchers and all those pushing the medical model have been trying to convince the world about!

    > Maybe the word “autistic” just feels wrong to me for some reason.

    It would be interesting to hear if that’s because you’ve been used to the terminology pushed by your employer and most academic papers, or whether you’ve opted for person-first after considering all the implications of these terminologies?

    BTW as you mentioned SCOPE, I just had a quick look at its website and it appears to have adopted identity-first terminology: ‘For young disabled people, disabled adults and older disabled people’ (It has a great page on the social model: http://www.scope.org.uk/about-us/our-brand/social-model-of-disability)

    > I would really like to know how everyone else feels about being called “autistic”.

    Your employer has conducted a survey, but very little has been released yet. See the article on p. 10 of the latest issue of Your Autism. It includes: ‘we found that adults on the autism spectrum preferred the terms ‘on the autism spectrum’ and ‘autistic’;’

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  7. No, on the contrary.

    I am autistic. It is an integral part of my identity. How I experience the world is as an autistic, all the time, all my life.

    I am offended by the lack of respect if I’m called a person with autism.

    I recommend the short Why I dislike Person First language by Jim Sinclair at http://www.larry-arnold.net/Autonomy/index.php/autonomy/article/view/OP1/html_1 as the seminal text on identity-first terminology.

    And for those who want more references about identity-first language, there’s a good list at the bottom of this interesting post http://www.autistichoya.com/2011/08/significance-of-semantics-person-first.html

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    1. Hi David
      Now that is interesting. Somehow I felt that saying “I’m a person with autism” sounded more politically correct. Maybe the word “autistic” just feels wrong to me for some reason. I would really like to know how everyone else feels about being called “autistic”.

      I will have a look at those links you sent me

      Many thanks
      Steve

      Reply

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