Published on 12, July, 2020
You know I am not want to quibble about language I would normally say you should use whatever terminology most quickly and accurately conveys what you’re trying to say regardless of whether it’s politically correct. Autistic person or person with autism it makes very little difference to me. High functioning or low functioning yeah I think we all understand what that means now. But there is one terminology that I am seeing but I am not a fan of.
people who say that this person is profoundly autistic or very autistic or severely autistic. Because they’re not talking about the core symptoms of autism being more serious the lack of social skills the special interest are repetitive behaviours. They’re talking about intellectual handicap. As if people who have an intellectual disability are somehow more autistic than people who do not. and the logical extension of this is that they are more deserving of sympathy and help and special accommodations. and these intellectually disabled autistic people are the true autistic people the profoundly autistic people and the ones you have to take seriously not like these high functioning autistic people. they don’t really need help. at least that is a subtext which is conveyed.
I mean no one says “he is so profoundly autistic he kept me talking about quantum physics for an hour even though I tried to change the subject multiple times and then tried to follow me in to the ladies loo to keep talking to me about quantum physics.”
no one says, “he is so severally autistic he thought a good icebreaker would be the group discussing what sex toys we have.” Even though this would be the proper use of the term.
no when they say profoundly autistic they mean “he’s 26 and has a mental age of 12.” I really wish we could stop people and I guess by people I mostly mean parents from using this terminology.
People say that because they are describing what they see. It's the same attitude that leads to comments like "You don't look autistic". Even the other day someone said "severely autistic" in my presence. She's a special needs teaching assistant. She knows I'm autistic and that my son is autistic. It's disheartening because you think she would know better but also I don't see a distinction between someone that is labelled severe and myself, whereas they do. I think she actually said "severely autistic" for my benefit, as in "I'm talking about someone who's autistic but I don't see you that way". I identify more with all autistic people than I do with any neurotypical people. I feel like a total outsider in the presence of most NTs whereas they view me as "one of them", as far as I can tell - because I don't look or act how they think an autistic person would be stereotypically. People like labels because it saves them from doing work. Unless something directly affects someone why would they learn about it?
I think it will change as the general population becomes more aware of what autism is, as more are diagnosed and there is more exposure about our experiences. The majority of material up until recently was not about the lived experience of autistic people, it was about perceptions of autism from the outside. That's changing though and that in turn will change the general perception of what autism is. I think it's especially encouraging that the NTs are reading works by autistic authors, celebrities are "coming out" as autistic, younger people seem to be more aware and accepting. In the meantime challenge that perception if you feel able to. Yeah, it's annoying as hell. I like the approach that Katherine May (autistic author) has - at a social event she could tell someone was going to say something about autistic people and she said something like "Before you go any further I want to let you know that I'm autistic and I wouldn't want you to say something that you may regret if you didn't have that information ".
I don't really want to get into this discussion however,
This Person (Ottilie) said: The majority of material up until recently was not about the lived experience of autistic people, it was about perceptions of autism from the outside. That's changing though and that in turn will change the general perception of what autism is. I think it's especially encouraging that the NTs are reading works by autistic authors, celebrities are "coming out
...this is people who are able to communicate in the conventional manner. There will be people out there, like my friend's son, who probably won't be able to do this even when he gets to adult age. So yes it's great that there's more inclusively when it comes to research and material, but it still only covers the lived experiences of those who are able to articulate it in a way the majority can understand.
On BBC recently there was a program called Inside Our Autistic Minds. I don't know if you saw it. Ken Bruce's son, Murray, was on it. He's never spoken. He doesn't communicate in the conventional manner. He made a short film for the programme.