31
Don't say "autistic people"
(programming.dev)
A community for respectful discussion and memes related to autism acceptance. All neurotypes are welcome.
We have created our own instance! Visit Autism Place the following community for more info.
Community:
Values
Rules
Encouraged
.
Helpful Resources
Don't have autism but am in the field specifically with younger kids. We have switched from saying autistic kids like "I work with autistic kids" to " I work with kids with autism." Curious if one feels better to you as someone who has autism.
Personally I prefer being referred to as autistic as "having autism" makes it sound like a disease to me. In my experience what autism does to me is to make me who I am. It's a collection of traits that we have labeled autistic that is part of shaping my personality, for better and worse. Some traits are annoying to have sure, but everyone has annoying traits(to have or for others to have), mine are just incidentally put in a box and labeled.
The counterargument I've heard is that I shouldn't let it control who I am, therefore it's something I have, but that sounds silly to me because it is me. I tried all my childhood not to be weird and it only made me more insecure and unsincere. I'd rather own it than pretend it doesn't "control me".
It must be said though, it's not something I care very much about and would probably not have noticed much hadn't I been corrected by a social worker when I referred to myself as autistic and explained why it shouldn't be used.
I don’t think adjective-first is letting it control who I am. It’s just one of my qualities. I am kind. I am clumsy. I am intelligent. I am creative. I am autistic.