30 Days of Autism Acceptance 2022: Day 20

April 20th: What are your thoughts on terminology? (ie, high functioning and low functioning vs high support needs and low support needs, nonspeaking vs nonverbal, person first vs identity first, etc)

Personally I don’t use functioning labels for myself because I know the issues with how they’re used, and I know not every autistic person fits into these categories neatly. But I’ve also seen people who use the term low functioning for themselves because they find that it describes them well, and I have nothing against that. We all get to decide what terminology we use for ourselves and what terminology others should use for us.

As for high/low support needs, I think that terminology can be helpful, because it gives an idea of how much help the person needs with everyday things and it emphasizes the importance of support in our lives. Although I’d personally use these terms in the context of describing my needs to others so they know how to handle me (like, I consider myself to have low support needs so I’ll manage a lot of things). But I could be wrong. Again, everyone decides for themselves what terms to use for themselves.

I personally use identity first language for myself because I feel that person-first language is usually used for us by those who see being autistic as a disease, but if others prefer to use person-first for themselves and want it used for them, I’m okay with that, as long as they decide for themselves.

This is pretty much all I can type right now (I’m tired and have a headache) but TL;DR I think every autistic person has the right to decide what terms fit them and what they want to be called.