We use language on an individual basis depending on preference, as each autistic person’s individual preference is to be respected.
We support and advocate for the use of positive, person centred, neurodiversity affirming language. Check out this guide from Autism Central to build on your knowledge. 
We use identity-first language – ‘autistic person’ rather than ‘person with autism’ – to reflect the current preference of autistic people and the fact that autism is an essential part of one’s identity, rather than an add-on, an illness or a negative condition. As the autistic self-advocate Jim Sinclair put it, autism isn’t a ‘shell that a person is trapped inside… it colours every experience’ (Sinclair, J, 1993).
Some people may not identify as being autistic and some may use different language to describe themselves and their needs. You should always ask what terms they would prefer and use these when talking to them.
For a guide to using neurodiversity terms correctly, see Dr Nick Walker’s basic terms and definitions below.
Autism is not a ‘disease’ or ‘abnormal’, so in reverse, we should avoid referring to people who are not autistic as ‘normal’.
Autism is different for everyone. For this reason, we want to focus or people’s individual strengths and challenges to describe their support needs.
The autism spectrum is not linear – there are many aspects to functionality, so it might be that a person finds social communication easy but is hyper-sensitive to different kinds of sensory input, so may find it hard to communicate in busy places. It helps to think about autistic people having a ‘spiky profile’, which means there might be a strikingly uneven pattern of strengths and challenges. We don’t use words such as high functioning’ or ‘low functioning’ that reduce people to oversimplified labels and make assumptions about their potential. Often when we refer to those with higher support needs we may shorten to ‘high needs’ for ease of communication.
We recognise the use of the term ‘non-speaking’, as some autistic people may not use speech but may have developed a different way of communicating with other people (e.g. augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC). We also recognise that many autistic people who use verbal communication can become non-speaking at times of high anxiety.
Demand avoidance can happen in response to high levels of anxiety and stress and we may all avoid demands at certain times, to different degrees and for different reasons. Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is a profile with a set of unique characteristics and different support needs.
Autism is not an illness that can be cured. Negative and medicalised terms such as ‘disease’ ‘condition’ or ‘disorder’ should be avoided, as they are based on the medical model of understanding autism. This goes against autistic people’s preferences and also implies that there may be a cure. Often, it may not be autism itself, but co-occurring conditions that may cause difficulties or distress for autistic people. Therefore, it may be more appropriate to say a person is ‘struggling with a difficulty’ rather than ‘struggling with autism’.
Autism is a disability; autistic people can face significant challenges as a result of both biological differences, and a lack of understanding and acceptance. Some autistic people need high levels of direct support. But disability mainly happens because the world is not made for autistic people. It is designed for non-autistic ‘neurotypicals’, and prioritises their needs.
There is no such thing as ‘treatment for autism’. Talk about support, services and educational strategies (when applicable).
We avoid the term ‘challenging behaviour’, as it implies that the person ‘is challenging’ and needs to take responsibility to change their ‘behaviour’. We know that autistic people can experience high levels of anxiety, which may lead to significant levels of distress when the right adjustments are not made in their environment.
Distressed behaviour is a preferable term because it makes others think about the stress that someone is experiencing and what needs to be done to reduce this.
An autistic person is often challenged by their environment and may experience difficulties as a result of this. We avoid using terms such as ‘problems’ or ‘issues’, due to the negative connotations of these words.
We avoid terms such as ‘school refusal’ or ‘avoidance’, because they imply that not attending school is a choice. This is simply not the case for most autistic children, who may not be able to attend school due to a range of factors such as anxiety, lack of support or bullying.
