Ok, so I have a few more thoughts on this whole people first language versus the flip side, at least in terms of autism. I am at a conference at the moment and I listened to a session this morning on Deaf culture with a capital D. Couple of things that the presenter discussed was a quote by Lou Fant. Roughly the quote went along the lines that without a legitimage recognized language, there is no culture. Without culture you have no self-identity. Without self identity you just go on trying to be what others demand you to be.

Hmmmm....

Well, according to this little definition, we can't really have an Autistic culture with a capital A because there is no legitimate, recognized language that is shared by autistics worldwide. But is that how culture should be defined? What about a culture without language--can there be such a thing? I don't know if you've ever just sat with an autistic person, just to BE. It can be an incredibly powerful thing to just BE, with another individual. To sit together and NOT speak. I seem to remember that most of what we communicate is through means other than words...so why do words imply culture or that in a void of language culture ceases to exist?

The speaker also discussed different norms and behaviors that are found in the Deaf that can be misconstrued by the police, by medical staff, and by others. Sound familiar?

Artwork by a Deaf artist was displayed as well. A picture of a child with an adult hand grabbing the chin and forcing the child to look at the adult was shown. It was discussed by the presenter as being an incredibly rude thing to do, what if the child was playing and did not want to be interrupted? Yanking chins and forcing eye contact...sound familiar?

Deaf space was also discussed with appropriate lighting and open space. How many of you out there definitely have an Autistic space in your house or your whole house is considered Autistic space? Definitely sounds familiar.

I then went to an afternoon session that was focused on self-advocacy for groups with disabilities and the people first language was heavily emphasized. Person with autism rather than autistic person. The term autistic person was considered disrespectful. This group also mentioned person with deafness so I was a bit confused since the first presenter emphasized Deaf with a giant, capital D. It was mentioned that self-advocacy was only possible with people first language. In this case, a person first and disability second. Yet this person clearly distinguished between the person and the disability. Many autistics don't separate this out in the same way that the Deaf do not--read the quote a few posts ago to get my meaning. Quite the conundrum here...

I'll leave you with one last thought, the first speaker mentioned collectivism and that the Deaf community grows AS a community, moves FORWARD as a community. It's time that we see that attitude in the Autistic community as well.