"It Defines Who I Am" or "It's Something I Have": What Language Do [Autistic] Australian Adults [on the Autism Spectrum] Prefer?

Simon M Bury; Rachel Jellett; Jennifer R Spoor; Darren Hedley

doi:10.1007/s10803-020-04425-3

"It Defines Who I Am" or "It's Something I Have": What Language Do [Autistic] Australian Adults [on the Autism Spectrum] Prefer?

J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 Feb;53(2):677-687. doi: 10.1007/s10803-020-04425-3.

Authors

Simon M Bury¹, Rachel Jellett², Jennifer R Spoor³, Darren Hedley²

Affiliations

¹ Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, 3086, Australia. S.Bury@latrobe.edu.au.
² Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, 3086, Australia.
³ La Trobe Business School, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.

PMID: 32112234
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-020-04425-3

Abstract

There has been a recent shift from person-first to identity-first language to describe autism. In this study, Australian adults who reported having a diagnosis of autism (N = 198) rated and ranked autism-terms for preference and offensiveness, and explained their choice in free-text. 'Autistic', 'Person on the Autism Spectrum', and 'Autistic Person' were rated most preferred and least offensive overall. Ranked-means showed 'person on the autism spectrum' was the most preferred term overall. Six qualitative themes reflected (1) autism as core to, or (2) part of one's identity, (3) 'spectrum' reflecting diversity, (4) the rejection of stigmatising and (5) medicalised language, and (6) pragmatics. These findings highlight the importance of inclusive dialogue regarding individual language preference.

Keywords: Autism; Autism identity; Identity-first; Label preference; Person-first; Terminology.

MeSH terms

Adult
Australia
Autism Spectrum Disorder* / diagnosis
Autistic Disorder* / diagnosis
Humans
Language