Why I Dislike 'Person First' Language, by Jim Sinclair

For the autism rights activist Jim Sinclair (1999), “person with autism” suggests that autism “is something bad—so bad that it isn’t even consistent with being a person.” Dawson thinks that using that expression would be as bizarre as using “person with femaleness” to designate a woman (quoted in Harmon 2004c). Attitudes toward cure and therapies are consistent with these various positions.

Vidal, Fernando and Ortega, Francisco. Being Brains: Making the Cerebral Subject (Forms of Living)....

Harmon, Amy. 2004c. “How About Not ‘Curing’ Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading.” New York Times (Decemb...