Autistic OR Person with Autism? Which Should I Use?

There is significant debate within the autistic community about the whether to describe a person as ‘autistic’ or as ‘a person with autism’.

Those in favour of the former tend to see it as a part of their identity and what makes them ‘them’. This community of people would see ‘person with autism’ as potentially offensive because the phrase resides like ‘person with cancer’ or other pathological disease/disorder and as it is not something to be cured/fixed is not welcome.

However, some of the community prefer ‘person with autism’ because it is seen as something they manage but doesn’t define them fully. At time of writing most people would favour ‘autistic’ to negate from the medical model of disability language.

As it can depend on the person's preferences, it is best to check, or state that you will be using the following reference (e.g. autistic) but acknowledge that some prefer the other variant and that either is fine and can be interchanged throughout the piece with their preference.