Okay, so. Iām Confused About This Thing, part [insert big number here]:
I thought that the main point of most of the language reform thing around autism isnāt that the language in use is incorrect, itās that itās misleading. (Iām excluding slurs. Those are offensive and considered bad for a different reason.)
Examples include, but arenāt limited to:
āNonverbalā is misleading because it implies that autistic people who canāt speak have no connections to language as a whole, so ānonspeakingā is preferred.
āPerson with autismā is misleading because it implies that autism is something that can be separated from the individual (or cured), so āautistic personā is preferred.
Severity labels are misleading because they imply that autism is a linear spectrum, so itās preferred to just specify what traits youāre describing (usually things like high support needs, nonspeaking, etc.).
Functioning labels are misleading for a lot of reasons, and have a similar solution to severity labels.
So, the conclusions I reached from this was:
1. Autistic people (who the language applies to) are allowed to use whatever language they feel is best, since they know what being autistic is like.
2. These restrictions on language are mostly meant for people who are not autistic, since they donāt know what being autistic is like.
3. None of the examples given are inherently wrong, theyāre just not accurate.
But now Iām hearing that some people think that the language is wrong? And that nobody is allowed to use them? Iām very confused. Aspergerās Syndrome is also apparently in a separate category (and I think mild autism and high functioning, too)? Can someone help explain this?
(If I said anything thatās wrong, hard to understand, ignorant, or that you simply disagree with, please let me know! This also goes for anything important that I may have left out. Oh, and any grammar mistakes I may have made.)
