The clinical world still calls it Autism Spectrum Disorder. We do not use that term here. The word disorder is a claim about us, made without us, and it follows us into every room our lives pass through. Schools. Clinics. Workplaces. Welfare offices. Centrelink. The HR meeting where you tried to ask for a quieter desk. The classroom where your kid was sent out for stimming. It has done a lot of damage, the word, and most of the damage has been quiet.
Autism is a neurotype. It is a way the brain develops, and a way a person experiences the world. It is not a disease. It is not a deficit. It is not a deviation from a correct template of being human, because no such template exists.
Autism is a neurotype
We use identity-first language on this site. Autistic person, not person with autism. Being Autistic is not a bag we carry. It is part of who we are.
The deficit framing does not describe us. It describes what happens when systems built for non-Autistic people meet a person who is not. That mismatch is real. It has real costs. But the mismatch belongs to the system, not to the person standing inside it.
The mismatch is the system
When we say autism is not a disorder, we are not asking for a softer word. We are refusing a false premise. The premise that there is something in us to be fixed. The premise that adjusting our behaviour is the shortest path to a better life. The premise that our communication, our play, our thinking, our sensory experience, are all rehearsals for a more acceptable version of ourselves.
They are not rehearsals. They are the life.
This page, this site, this campaign, tell a different story. One where Autistic people are the authors of our own description. One where difference is not the same as dysfunction. One where support is not an instrument of normalisation.
If you are reading this
If you are Autistic, this is for you. If you love someone Autistic, this is for you. If you work alongside Autistic people and are still using the old language, this is also for you. Words change when the people using them change them.
