Why I choose not to use the terms ASD or ASC

You may have noticed that I always use the terms autism and autistic instead of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC).

I subscribe to the neurodiversity paradigm which views neurodiversity as natural. There is nothing wrong with being neurodivergent, and autistic is not a dirty word. I don’t consider autism to be a disorder or condition, so I choose not to use that language. I tend to refer to autism as a neurotype or neurodivergence.

I also find that saying autistic is clearer because more people know what this means than understand the acronyms ASD or ASC.

ASD and ASC are pathologising terms used by the medical model. The model views autism as a series of deficits, while the neurodiversity paradigm recognises natural differences in brains and nervous systems.

If you’re looking for a professional or organisation to support you or a family member, the language they use can be a good indication of whether they align more with the medical model or neurodiversity paradigm. Medicalised language is sometimes required in official reports, but there are assessors, therapists and psychologists who still manage to use affirming language throughout.

Kieran Rose, the Autistic Advocate, and others have talked about the difference between autism the medical concept, and being autistic. They are very different things.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) defines autism by a narrow set of characteristics and distress behaviours displayed by young white boys. The fact that it’s in a manual of disorders (and that one exists in the first place) shows you how autism and difference as a whole are perceived.

Homosexuality used to be in the DSM too, but has since been removed. Enslaved people who ran away were considered to have done so because they had a condition, termed drapetomania. The language of disorders and conditions is one of control and othering, and is used to enforce neuronormativity. (See here for more information, including why disorder and condition are medically interchangeable terms with the same meaning.)

Autistic experiences are far broader than the narrow categorisation found in the DSM, which doesn’t even feature key attributes such as monotropism, and fails to account for the varying experiences of people of different intersectional identities.

So why might people prefer to use ASD/ASC? These are just a few of the reasons I’ve heard, and I’m sure there are others:

They’ve been told these are the terms to use, so they’ve adopted this language.

It’s what they’ve heard others say and they haven’t heard of alternatives.

It’s what it said on their diagnostic paperwork.

They think being autistic is a bad thing and view ASD/ASC as softer terms.

They believe in the medical model and choose to use its language.

They consider autism to be a disorder or condition and so they use terms that reflect this.

It’s what they’ve always used and they haven’t considered — or have actively rejected — alternatives.

As a teenage act of rebellion against wider autistic community preferences.

Change feels too difficult.

Everyone gets to choose whatever language they want to use. It’s always helpful to be aware of the connotations of those choices and what people may infer from them.

I still use ADHD because there isn’t an obvious alternative like autistic. Some in the ADHD community have started using VAST which stands for variable attention stimulus trait, but this isn’t widely adopted or understood yet.

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