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| How do you want to be "labeled"? |
| Autistic |
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49% |
[ 43 ] |
| Person with autism |
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8% |
[ 7 ] |
| Other (please tell what) |
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10% |
[ 9 ] |
| I don't care what people call me |
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32% |
[ 28 ] |
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| Total Votes : 87 |
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| Author |
Message |
Liverbird
Using my evil powers for good!
Joined: Jun 14, 2007
Posts: 1108
Location: My heart belongs to Anfield
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 Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 4:28 pm Post subject: To be autistic or not to be? |
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Okay, here's the fun world of polls. I have Asperger's and I work with people with disabilities (mostly high school students). I recently attended a conference that is training people who work for adult service providers to be resource people for people and families with ASDs. It's given by Indiana University and involves some of the people who are the top autism researchers in the country right now.
Person first language has come up quite a few times. You know the old "person with a disabilty" rather than a disabled person crap. During the training, we had presenters that were saying things like "our friends with autism" and "people with autism". Me, myself, I'm out of the closet and I call myself autistic. So, I don't care if people refer to me as autistic.
I told the people at IU that I would do a poll on here to see what other people on the spectrum thought. I know that some people are still "in the closet" so to speak on their ASD. What I'm asking is do you care if others call you autistic? Also in a training situation when we are teaching people how to refer to us do you think that they should use the politically correct term of "person with autism" or is it okay to say "autistic person"?
I'm assuming that when people say you are autistic that they are not using it in a derogatory way. I'm thinking that they are using it as an identifier in some way.
_________________
"All those things that you taught me to fear
I've got them in my garden now
And you're not welcome here" ---Poe
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anna-banana
and yet it moves!
Joined: Aug 31, 2008
Age: 25
Posts: 1728
Location: Europe
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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I don't care about the label. I don't intend to tell anyone that I have an ASD unless it's complately necessary. hopefully in some years the public awareness about ASDs will grow and there will be no point staying in the closet anymore.
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I got some bad ideas in my head. (Taxi Driver) |
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Liverbird
Using my evil powers for good!
Joined: Jun 14, 2007
Posts: 1108
Location: My heart belongs to Anfield
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 4:37 pm Post subject: |
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Perhaps I wasn't specific enough. What I'm asking is, how should people who are being trained on ASD's be taught to say?
_________________
"All those things that you taught me to fear
I've got them in my garden now
And you're not welcome here" ---Poe
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Sora
Love all, trust a few
Joined: Sep 16, 2006
Age: 20
Posts: 2854
Location: Europe
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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How I want others to call me?
Person with autism.
To keep it politically fine and to remind people I'm not one odd alien that's called like a strange label, but a person with a strange label.
I call myself autistic usually, I think. Or use the appropriate noun 'Autist' in my other native. That's my preferred use if I am talking about myself.
I'm however appalled if other and especially non-autistic people say German 'Autist' or English 'autistic' to mean me though.
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The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. Terry Pratchett |
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willybeamish
Butterfly
Joined: Oct 01, 2008
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 5:01 pm Post subject: |
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its funny how people speak about the differences of the human brain and body as if you have something, and there is an absolute norm.
i simply have a brain that is further from the mean than normal. a-spec mindset. |
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anbuend
Oak-Type Autie
Joined: Jul 06, 2004
Posts: 3302
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 5:05 pm Post subject: |
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I find the idea that we need to flip words around to remind people that we're human, quite odd.
After all, a person can be called "a brunette" without anyone raising a fuss, and that's a lot less of a person than their brain structure.
Personally although I have a preference for 'autistic person' and similar, I use whatever formulation comes out of my fingers when I type it, whether 'autistic', 'autistic person', 'person with autism', 'autie', whatever.
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"We may seem in the gutter from up there where you are but maybe you don't know we still see the same stars." -Donna Williams |
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SuPaStAr
Phoenix
Joined: Apr 12, 2007
Age: 17
Posts: 575
Location: Birmingham UK
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:42 pm Post subject: Re: To be autistic or not to be? |
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| Liverbird wrote: | Okay, here's the fun world of polls. I have Asperger's and I work with people with disabilities (mostly high school students). I recently attended a conference that is training people who work for adult service providers to be resource people for people and families with ASDs. It's given by Indiana University and involves some of the people who are the top autism researchers in the country right now.
Person first language has come up quite a few times. You know the old "person with a disabilty" rather than a disabled person crap. During the training, we had presenters that were saying things like "our friends with autism" and "people with autism". Me, myself, I'm out of the closet and I call myself autistic. So, I don't care if people refer to me as autistic.
I told the people at IU that I would do a poll on here to see what other people on the spectrum thought. I know that some people are still "in the closet" so to speak on their ASD. What I'm asking is do you care if others call you autistic? Also in a training situation when we are teaching people how to refer to us do you think that they should use the politically correct term of "person with autism" or is it okay to say "autistic person"?
I'm assuming that when people say you are autistic that they are not using it in a derogatory way. I'm thinking that they are using it as an identifier in some way. |
Questions:
1. What I'm asking is do you care if others call you autistic?
2. Also in a training situation when we are teaching people how to refer to us do you think that they should use the politically correct term of "person with autism" or is it okay to say "autistic person"?
Answer:
I personally would rather be called "an Aspie" (i have Asperger's Syndrome though - Not Autism and i take grave offence at being labelled Autistic)
If theoretically i was Autistic, i would rather be called "A person with Autism."
Because - I would rather, me as a person, come before my disability rather than my disability before my person. |
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demoluca
Phoenix
Joined: Nov 17, 2007
Posts: 581
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:44 pm Post subject: |
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I don't care, I only care If they start talking to me in a loud, exaggerated voice because of it that's when I care.
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happypuff
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: May 18, 2008
Age: 19
Posts: 64
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:54 pm Post subject: |
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I hate politically correct language.
I find for any thing, rewording it as 'person with x' draws more attention to it in your efforts to be nice, rather then just saying it straight away.
And yeah, as the OP said, this is only for non derogatory usage =) |
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Liverbird
Using my evil powers for good!
Joined: Jun 14, 2007
Posts: 1108
Location: My heart belongs to Anfield
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:58 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, I love how NTs have made the decision for us that we should be separated from the autism and that we somehow are less than human because of it. It's amusing that there needs to be this odd distinction.
My idea is that we are never separate from the Asperger's. It's the way that our brains are wired and it's the way we think. I don't feel like I'm ever apart from it. With other disabilities they would still be the same people with or without the disability. The Asperger's is not like that. I would not be the same person without it. It's fundamentally why I am who I am.
I know some people take alot of offense to the word autistic. But I wonder if we lived in a world where autistic did not have the negative connotation, would we still feel that way?
By putting the autism last aren't we implying that it's bad and that we should be distanced from it in some way? I don't think it's bad. Do I have meltdowns and bad moments? Of course I do. But I am a unique person with alot of strengths that I have because of the Asperger's. I try to concentrate on the positive things and learn how to live better with the negative ones. But I live in a world where I've made the Asperger's a much more positive thing. I don't hide from it and I accept it.
I know that not all of us can do that. I accept that, too.
_________________
"All those things that you taught me to fear
I've got them in my garden now
And you're not welcome here" ---Poe
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Tim_Tex
WP's Resident Simpsons and South Park Aficionado
Joined: Jul 03, 2004
Age: 28
Posts: 22319
Location: San Marcos, Texas
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:12 pm Post subject: |
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Actually quite indifferent on that one.
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When you need something, that's a responsibility, that only an adult...of my maturity...Bunnies!!!
~Meatwad, Aqua Teen Hunger Force |
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Ryn
Velociraptor
Joined: Apr 10, 2008
Posts: 429
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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I honestly don't care. I'd rather be called autistic, I think, simply because it takes less time to say. Perhaps I'm not very PC in this regard.
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"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions."--Augusten Burroughs |
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pakled
"Bless his Heart"
Joined: Nov 13, 2007
Age: 51
Posts: 3044
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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by my name, or if formally, "Mr. Brown"...
I have some tendencies, they do not completely define me. It's like telling me that since I was born in a certain age, I'm a 'baby boomer'....sheesh... |
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MR
Deinonychus
Joined: Jun 25, 2008
Age: 39
Posts: 392
Location: USA
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| Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:10 am Post subject: |
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| If you mean autistic as a noun, "an autistic" versus "a person with autism", well, for me, I just don't like the word "autistic" as a noun. |
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Kelsi
Phoenix
Joined: Jun 23, 2007
Posts: 643
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:36 am Post subject: |
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| To me, 'autistic' is a word that defines who I am, who I have always been, who I always will be, how I experience this world, and what makes me different from most people. It is the same as calling a person a 'homosexual' or 'gay'. We don't refer to them as being a 'person with homosexuality', do we? |
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