I was interviewed for a small paper and the writer was great, I liked him a lot and he did a great job but they used person first language to describe me and the editor won't budge on it and that pisses me the fuck off. Official style rules say disabled people don't matter! cool
My official rules say that only disabled people's opinions matter on the topic of how to refer to disabled people. It's not a small issue to me. I find person first language really offensive and really disrespectful. If you don't know, that's one thing. But after I told you?? 🤨
Person-first or people first language means referring to me as a “person with autism.” Identity first language means referring to me as an autistic person. Parents and caregivers prefer person-first, autistic people prefer identity-first. Only autistic people’s opinions matter.
People first language was made the standard by parents & “experts” on the rationale that we are people! Don't forget that we are people! We're not defined by our disability! They didn't bother to ask us how we feel about it or explain why they're so likely to forget we’re people
Autistic people overwhelmingly support identity-first. The survey showed 88% of autistic people prefer IFL, and 96% either preferred it or have no opinion. 3.9% preferred person-first. That's about as close to a consensus opinion as you get in this world
https://researchautism.org/1000-people-surveyed-survey-says/
Autistic people don't like person first language bc it makes it sound like being autistic can be separated from who we are. it can't. Every cell of my body is autistic. Pretending you can separate them feeds into the eugenicist myth that you could “cure” us. That means killing us
Making autism separate from the person reinforces the myth that it's a disorder, that there’s something wrong with us. We're just a different kind of person. There’s nothing to cure. This is why language matters –it affects how people see the world. People form beliefs off a word
IFL vs PFL also matters a lot to me because it signifies who you think deserves to make decisions for autistic people. It signifies whose humanity you respect. So it says a lot that most official style guides require person-first.
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