Is It Person with Autism or Autistic Person, Part 1?

    A few weeks ago an autistic person took issue with the fact that I used "person with autism" and "autistic person" interchangeably. The autistic person said that saying "person with autism" was like saying a black person was a "person with blackness" or a gay person was like saying a "person with homosexuality." This is an age-old debate in the autism community of person-first vs identity-first language. Many parents prefer person or child with autism while many adult, particular those in the neurodiverity movement, prefer autistic person. Autism is an identity to those who prefer autistic person

    All these arguments are flawed.

1. It is not "black person", but African-   American. It is not person with    homosexuality, but gay, lesbian, bi, and transgender (LGBT or LGBTQ)

2. What the autistic person did was        discriminatory. To not want to have         anything to do with anyone because of one's choice of words is just pain            discriminatory. 

    The autistic person could claim they have freedom of speech or freedom of belief Article 30 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a pivotal document in international human rights, states, "Nothing in this declaration may be interpreted as for any  state, group, or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of the rights and freedoms set forth herein."

    For example, hate groups who sometimes preach overt or covert discrimination might claim free speech under articles 18 & 19, but that free speech is really aimed at the destruction of article 16 regarding discrimination based on region, race, or other opinion.

    So is it "person with autism," or "autistic person?" I do not think it matters because each person needs to decide for himself or herself what language they are going to use.

Thanks for reading my post. Please leave a comment, whether you agree or disagree to drum up some discussion. Thank you!

Training Law Enforcement Officers How To Respond to People With Autism-Does it Work?

I have participated in training law en-forcement (LE) and other first responders in what do when encountering people with autism. On Facebook I commented about it, and someone replied that it does not work and there is very little evidence for it. I asked what does the poster suggest. The poster replied that there should be mental health crisis response teams. What are the facts? Does the training of LE effect the treatment of autistic people? There is plenty of research demonstrating the lack of education of LE in handling encounters with autistic individuals (Gardner & Campbell, 2025; Sereno-Ferraro & Schuler, 2026; Hinkle & Lerman, 2023). It is true that there is not much research discussing the success of training of LE in interacting with autistics, but there is not evidence of the alternative of mental health crisis response teams. What needs to be done is research verifying whether training LE or crisis response teams will work.

References

Gardner, L & Campbell, J.M. (2025). Training law enforcement officers about    autism: evaluation of adding virtual        reality or stimulation to a traditional    training approach, 55(8), pp. 2643-       2650. Journal of Autism and             

Developmental Disorders

Hinkle, K.A. & Lerman, D.C. (2023). Pre-

paring law enforcement to engage

successfully with individuals with autism spectrum disorder: an evaluation of a performance-based approach, 53(3), 887-900. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities

Sereno-Ferraro, A & Schuler, R. A.        (2026). Evaluating community-inormed training module for autism recontion in policing, 33(2) 409-429. Psychology, psychiatry, and Law. 

Autism Intervention Throughout the Lifespan-How Early Intervention Only Positions Harm Older Autistics

    

The chief position among autism professionals currently is early intervention. Early intervention-only positions harm adults with autism because of the lack of services that result by adhering to early intervention only.

    Chief among those promoting this position is Temple Grandin. Temple Grandin is the godmother (so to speak) of the autism advocacy movement, and has been very sucessful as an advocate, but she is not an expert on autism. Miss Grandin is a motivational speaker at best who has promoted the early intervention-only approach

    I approached Miss Grandin about this issue and this was her response: "Dear John - There is a need for intervention through the life span.  In my talks, I emphasize early intervention because there are some young kids who get no intervention. You may like my book Different Not Less. Eighteen individuals with autism who were diagnosed later in life write about their experiences." I appreciate her acknowledgement, but I did not appreciate her plugging one of her books. This book has older adults with autism, but does not pomote intervention for those who are older with autism.

   While some promote early intervention, I promote intervention throughout the lifespan. Because of early intervention-only policies, this has produced plenty of facilities that will treat children, but very few facilities that treat adults. The few that do are not autism-friendly. Adults with autism are being harmed because of early intertvention-only policies

    We need facilities that treat autism across the lifespan. We need more specialist that treat adults. I know of only two in Tucson. I am one of them. The other person is a neuropsychologist in Tucson. Since I received my Master of Science in Counseling in the past six months, I have had two clients on the autism spectrum. 

    We need more trainers that train counselors to treat people on the autism spectrum too. Creating a trainer of trainers program will create the type of trainers we need to aid practitioners in providing counseling services to those on the autism spectrum.

    The few charities that have programs for adults with autism were mainly created by parents of children with autism. We need more charities created by adults on the autism spectrum for adults on the spectrum.

Proclamation: Autism Inclusion Day

We are in a post-autism awareness world. We are achieving awareness. We need to move to the next step though.We need to move from simple awareness to autism inclusion. Awareness without inclusion is nothing. 

April 2 was Autism Awareness Day. A new day needs to be created for autism inclusion.

Therefore, let it be known that April 3rd, 2026, is the first Autism Inclusion Day, and every year therafter on April 3 will be Autism Inclusion Day

On autism Inclusion Day, we think about not awareness only, but who among the autism community can we include in activities with us. Could we invite a person with autism to a gathering or party? Could we invite a person with autism to a movie? What activities might we include a person with autism in?

Yet autism inclusion need not to be confined only to April 3rd. Let April 3rd be the start of autism inclusion and not just for one day to practice autism inclusion, but every day.

Autism Awareness Day 2026 for Those on the Autism Spectrum

 

Every year, autism awareness month comes around, but have you stopped to think that for people with autism, every day is autism awareness day? 

Autism is not a single condition but a collection of conditions. That is why autism is called a spectrum condition.

Despite this, many neurotypicals are not autism-friendly, and this includes many who are autism advocates. These so-called advocates either do not understand or do not care about the emotional makeup of those on the spectrum.

I have personally experienced this. A facilitator for an autism parent group was belligerent towards me and gossiped about me to her members. This behavior is just unacceptable for someone in the autism advocacy arena. 

These people need to be educated about the emotional makeup of many of those on the spectrum. These people need a little autism awareness.

Autism Awareness for Advocates

What are some ways advocates could be more aware of autism?

• Being aware of the emotional makeup of various people on the autism spectrum.

• Not being belligerent to a person on the spectrum.

• Being more aware of the characteristics of autism, provided the person on the spectrum is not being intentionally rude.

• Educating the person on the spectrum in the spirit of kindness.

• Never bully someone on the spectrum (or anyone else, for that matter).

How can an autism advocate create awareness to others when he or she needs to be first educated about autism awareness?

Autism Awareness Day 2026

April 2nd  is Autism Awareness Day. Every life, including those with autism, has value. This day's observance, per the UN, is titled Autism and Humanity-Every Life Has Value. Resolution UN Res/62/139 was adopted on December 18, 2007, and started on April 2, 2008, to be designated as Autism Awareness Day.

Autism and Human Rights

In line with this year’s UN theme, it might be in order to discuss the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

The first article sets the tone for the rest of the Declaration. "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood." Some people tend to shout about their rights while at the same time forgetting about the rights of others. 

I am a firm believer in human rights, and I believe all human rights matter, provided that the right being espoused is not aimed at the denigration of the rights of another person or population.

Past UN Celebrations

The UN has worked hard to create awareness for autism events. The past five events have focused on:

• Advancing Neurodiversity and  the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2025).

• Moving from Thriving to Surviving: Autistic Individuals Share Regional Perspectives (2024).

• Transformation: Toward a Neuro-inclusive World for All (2023). 

• Inclusive-Quality Education for All (2022).

• Inclusion in the Workplace: Challenges and Opportunities in a Post-pandemic World (2021).

• Assistive Technologies, Active Participation (2019).

The UN has been a wonderful advocate in creating autism awareness

Ways Neurotypicals Can 

Create Autism Awareness

• Set up a booth at any of the Autism Society's annual autism events and invite others to participate with you.

• Invite others to join you at the UN autism streaming event.

• Have a gathering on or near Autism Awareness Day and invite those on the autism spectrum.

• Give a speech at an autism organization.

• Create an autism website or blog

• Start an autism awareness charity

• Write an essay, article, or book

• Join the board of an autism charity

• Start a business that caters to the autism community.

• Become an autism-life coach

• Start a public access TV or radio program aimed at an autism community audience.

• Start a social media site that creates autism awareness.

• Use bumper stickers that create autism awareness.

• Include a person with autism in an activity.

In conclusion, what can you do to promote autism awareness on Autism Awareness Day? Do any of the suggestions give any ideas? Do you have any of your own ideas? Do not forget autism rights are human rights, and promote autism awareness, not only on April 2nd, but throughout April, or try something better: promote it day after day after day throughout the year.