Autism Terminology Preferences Among Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults in North America | Autism in Adulthood
Background: There is widespread debate about the language used to describe autistic people; many professionals prefer person-first language (e.g., “person with autism”), and many autistic people prefer identity-first language (e.g., “autistic person”). Although prior surveys of the autism community’s terminology preferences have reported participants’ evaluations of individual terms, limited research has directly compared evaluations of discrete categories of identity- and person-first terms. Additionally, there is a need to more fully understand participants’ evaluations of terms relevant to autistic people outside of the identity- and person-first debate. Methods: In total, 784 North American adults (Nautistic = 611; 78%) evaluated two identity-first terms (“autistic” and “autistic person”) and five person-first terms (“person with autism,” “person with autism spectrum disorder,” “person with autism spectrum condition,” “person on the autism spectrum,” and “person diagnosed with autism”). Participants reported which terms they would use, ranked the terms in order of their preference, and rated how much they liked each term and how offensive each term was. In open-ended responses, participants explained their highest and lowest rankings and provided definitions of (the autism) “spectrum,” “high functioning,” and “low functioning.” Results: Both autistic and non-autistic participants were more likely to use identity-first terms than person-first terms, ranked identity-first terms more highly than person-first terms, and liked identity-first terms more than person-first terms. Participants’ open-ended responses provided some context for the quantitative findings and highlighted their critical views of functioning labels. Conclusion: Consistent with other recent work with different samples and different methodologies, the North American participants in the current study preferred identity-first terms over person-first terms. That said, there was variability, with some autistic and non-autistic participants strongly preferring person-first terms. We end by providing recommendations on incorporating our findings into future research and practice.