"autists" or "autistics"? and capital A?

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I am not a native English speaker, and I have been wondering which is preferable - "autists" or "autistics"?

What do the native speakers here think?

Do these terms imply different meanings - i.e. are they used in particular contexts, such as the autism rights movement?

I've also seen activists use a capital "A" - as in Autistic rather than autistic - what do you think of that?

Though I have seen "autistic" used as a noun, normally it is an adjective--or a word that fits with "very" as a prefix. How about "aspie"?

I prefer "Autistics" to "Autist". For some reason, I can't stand that word.

I ALWAYS use a capital "A". Not to do so would be disrespectful.

Not everyone is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, so it is disrespectful to them to refer to us all as Aspies.

Any particular reason why you think it's disrespectful?



I am looking for a term that is inclusive of the entire spectrum.

Not all folks on the autistic spectrum are dx'd with aspergers so it would be inaccurate to call them all 'aspies'.

In fact, strictly speaking, there are no aspies anymore because they took that category away.

The equivalent term to 'aspie' for folks with autism who are not 'aspies' is 'auties'.

But if you dont care for the cutesy sound of 'autie'-then I agree that 'autists' just doesnt sound right.

Someone who does art is an 'artist', and someone who does science is a "scientist", and so called 'magicians' are now called 'illusionists'. But unlike those groups- autistic people dont voluntarily practice autism as if it were a craft. So thats why I dont like 'autist'.

"Autistic" is an adjective.

Colors are adjectives. But we also use them as nouns for members of racial groups - "Blacks votes this way, Whites vote that way". So I suppose you can call people 'autistics". That would be the least klutzy term for people with autism IMHO.

I'm trying to a set standard on this in the papers I'm writing. I use neurotypical and neurodiverse as much as possible, and only when specifically referring to psychiatric populations do I use Autistic. I avoid using Aspie as this word has been medicalized by too many people in the autistic community and is today useless for the personality-type (that's what I use neurodiverse for). I also use ASD when specifically referring to DSM, but not otherwise.

Of course, the words neurodiverse and neurotypical doesn't refer to popular beliefs about these concepts, but the definition I made of these terms in "Autism, Personality, and Human Diversity - Defining Neurodiversity in an Iterative Process Using Aspie Quiz" paper. Someday I may remove Aspie completely in Aspie Quiz and replace it with "neurodiverse" or possible "neurodiverse (Aspie)". I really find it unfortunate that the Aspie term has eroded into something that is totally obsolete.

Autistic/autism/austistics do not use a capital letter unless it is at the start of a sentence.

Aspergers has a capital A because it is named after someone.

I prefer "autistic" and it has no capital A. The english language doesn't use much capital letters in general.
You can read up the roules here when to use capital letters in english: http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/dep ... ode27.html

Yeah, like me. I'm no Aspie, I was dx with HFA in the past.
I don't feel mentioned if someone says "Aspie", because I'm not an "Aspie".

Last edited by Raziel on 11 Oct 2013, 11:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

Only in America.

I call myself an aspie, or autistic. I don't really like autist because I'm not sure how to pronounce it and it seems too similar to artist. I have also seen people refer to themselves as "auties."

The major problem with this is that just like "aspie" doesn't include everyone, "neurodiverse" includes too many. It is my understanding that neurodiversity is not just autism, but other neurological conditions as well. So if I want to talk just about people who are on the spectrum (and I think we will increasingly be doing just that with the recent DSM-5 changes) neurodiverse doesn't cover just that population.

I agree that "autist" sounds odd - also to someone who doesn't know it refers to the medical diagnosis it may not be clear. "autistic" or "Autistic" as a noun is at least clear.

My problem with the capital A is that it seems to imply that I'm taking sides in a debate that is largely US-centric (or maybe anglophone). I would however like to use a term that doesn't irritate or offend anyone, on any side of the debate, or in any country. Is small-a "autistic" really read as disrespectful in the US?

i use autistic people.

I sometimes use capital A, but that's based on the point I'm making and about emphasis. Usually its just autistic people.

I don't understand why one would capitalize "autistic". Its not a nationality, nor a religion, nor a creed. Essentially-it's a medical condition. You wouldnt capitize "obese", nor "diabetic", nor "hemophiliac" ( or maybe you do- and I was asleep that day in school when they taught us to do so).So why would you do so with 'autistic'?

It's part of the autism rights movement in the US. Like the deaf communities write capital-d "Deaf" instead of "deaf". Means Deaf or Autistic as an identity rather than a medical condition, if I understand it correctly.

It's incorrect to capitalize autistic. It being used to refer to an identity is irrelevant.

Neurodiverse (using the Aspie Quiz definition) is a valid scientific term that is defined in a precise way without problems with overlap or boundaries. It also contains no subjectivity, and requires no precise definition of which traits are part of it. That also means it contains more things than the Autism label, but OTOH, this is necessary since some key personality differences linked to neurodiversity are not part of any diagnosis, but still are essential in order to understand neurodiversity.

I prefer autistic over autist/aspie/person with autism. Using the capital A doesn't look right to me; autistic isn't a proper noun, there's no reason to capitalize it. I'm aware of other communities doing it (Deaf, Black, etc) but that's hardly universal either.