NA?
I do not like it.
NA is a conventional acronym for "Not Applicable". If I were to refer to a person as NA, I would very much feel that I was describing them as neglible to the point of not even being applicable...NA also is an acronym of Narcotic Anomynous. As a short hand to save on typing, NT strikes me as significantly less denigrating than an acronym that is already conventional for describing something as not being or having an application and that is also the acronym for a group that people join when they need help to stop abusing narcotic substances.
I expect a significant proportion of non-Autistic people are not either so negliable as to be inapplicable or addicted to narcotic substances. In fact, probably the majority are neither negligable nor addicted to abusing drugs.
A point with regards to pendantism directed at the "typical" element of "NT": either it is typical to have some kind of neuro-"anomally" other than a form of Autism, and so neuro-typical is quite apt, or it is typical to not have a neuro-anomally including some form of Autism, and so NT still describes typical non-Autistic people. Either way, NT is not inaccurate.
People might not like Micro Soft, but it's difficult to effectively argue that Micro Soft is not generally rather good at marketing. An important aspect of marketing is naming things so that they are appealing. I do not know of any Micro Soft OS with the suffix NA, nor could I imagine Micro Soft being silly enough to apply such an unappealing name given Micro Soft's competency in the marketing area, because it (NA) already has widespread negative connnotation,s and further it is not a particularly appealing sound (when spoken) nor does it look appealing when typed or written. NT is actually kind of catchy; enough so that Micro Soft trusted it to not provoke negative connotations amongst its consumers and very probably counted on it being appealing.
To summarize my objections to NA:
*NA has conventional and very wide-spread meanings, so using it in place of NT will be more confusing than using NT, particulary to the uninitiated.
*NA has negative connotations, and I for one would not want to be described as not applicable, or in recovery from narcotic addiction and abuse, on the basis of my neuro-status.
*NA does not sound or look appealing and is (in my view) an unappealing letter combo whether typed/written or spoken.
*Either it is typical to be non-Autistic yet still characterized by a neuro-"anomally" and so NT is not inaccurate, or it is typical for non-Autistic people to not have a neuro-anomally and so NT still describes the typical non-Autistic person, so in either case is not particularly grossly inaccurate so far as rough and ready "people-labels go.
Last edited by pandd on 29 Jan 2010, 5:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.