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This is a thread about why journalists should consider using, or even prefer, identity first language in reporting about autism. h/t @yashar
First off, a little history — Person first language, also known as people first language, was developed in the 1980’s as a replacement for terms for disability that were (and still are) viewed as totalizing and offensive.
There is still an ongoing campaign to replace the term “mental retardation” or variations thereof in law and medicine. President Obama struck the r-word from the federal government when he signed Rosa’s Law in 2010. It got unanimous approval. Hard to imagine these days.
The idea behind person first language is to “see the person first” instead of the disability. Which was definitely an improvement over the r-word.
Identity first language was developed in the 1990’s by the Deaf community. Most deaf people felt and still feel that their deafness is an intrinsic part of who they are. If you have the person without the deafness, you have a different person altogether.
A little later, the nascent neurodiversity community adopted identity first language too.
Jim Sinclair, one of the founders of neurodiversity, wrote, “Autism is a way of being. It is pervasive; it colors every experience, every sensation, perception, thought, emotion, and encounter, every aspect of existence.” larry-arnold.net/Autonomy/index…
I and many other autistic adults call ourselves autistic because we do not believe you can separate the person from the autism. Autism is an intrinsic part of who I am. It shapes what I love, what I hate, how I move, how I exist in the world.
There isn’t data for the US, but in the UK, identity first language is strongly favored by autistic adults, according to research by @LorcanKenny and his colleagues. I suspect results in the US would be similar. journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.117…
The @APStylebook does not specify whether journalists should favor person first or identity first language for disability, not just autism. @NCDJ_ASU is there to fill in the gaps.
You can find @NCDJ_ASU’s disability style guide here, in Spanish and English: ncdj.org/style-guide/
You can also find a specific discussion of identity first language and the importance of not adhering strictly to any one way of speaking about disability from @NCDJ_ASU here: ncdj.org/2016/01/journa…
In general, the best thing to do is to follow the lead of the person you’re talking to or about. The best way to actually put the person first is to ask us what we think and what we want, and to care about the answer more than your own comfort or preference.
One last thought: If you have been very gung ho about person first language because you thought it was the most respectful way to talk about disabled people: Thank you for caring! A lot of people don’t. Realizing disabled people are often disrespected is a great first step.
