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In April 2012, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network started celebrating Autism Acceptance Month. They shifted away from the potentially stigmatizing "autism awareness" to "autism acceptance," which was created by and for the autistic community.
Autism acceptance means valuing and respecting the perspectives, experiences, and unique strengths of autistic individuals and promoting their inclusion and participation in society on their own terms.
Identity-first language is a way of referring to individuals with autism that emphasizes their identity as autistic people rather than treating autism as an unfortunate affliction or defining characteristic. Examples of identity-first language include "autistic person" or "autistic individual."
Both autism acceptance and identity-first language promote the rights and dignity of autistic individuals and challenge harmful stereotypes and stigma that can lead to discrimination, bullying, and exclusion. Identity-first language also acknowledges that autism is an integral part of their identity and sense of self.
Though many in the autism community use identify-first language, people-first language (for example, “person with a disability”) is used a lot in the broader disability community. What matters, though, is that we talk about people with autism and other disabilities in the way that they prefer.
Over time, we’ve come to understand that different people have different preferences – see our poll results on this topic – but the overriding message from all is they want to be treated with respect.
That’s a language we can all agree on.
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