Coming Out Of My Closet
The shift from the pathology paradigm to the neurodiversity paradigm calls for a radical shift in language. If a person has a medical condition, we might say that “she has cancer,” or “she suffers from ulcers.” But when a person is a member of a minority group, we say “she’s Black,” or “she’s a lesbian.” We recognize that it would be outrageously inappropriate—and likely mark us as ignorant or bigoted—if we were to refer to a Black person as “having negroism” or being a “person with negroism,” or that someone “suffers from homosexuality.” So if we use phrases like “person with Autism,” or “families affected by Autism,” we’re using . . . language that . . . accepts and reinforces the assumption that Autism is intrinsically a problem. In the language of the neurodiversity paradigm . . . we speak of Autistics in the same way we would speak of any social minority group: I am Autisti...