I'm autistic

I'm autistic.

No, really. I'm autistic.

I'm not a person with autism. I'm clear about this. I'm explicit about this, and calling me such is disrespecting me.

So. This has been happening. This has been happening by people who consider them knowledgeable about autism, and knowledgeable about social justice. Multiple people.

People. It's not okay to override how people refer to themselves. It is not okay to go up to someone and say "I know who you are better than you do, so I am going to decide how you are spoken about." This is what you are doing. Repeatedly. Multiple of you. It is not okay.

It is not okay for you to claim social justice, when social justice to you means ablesplaining. It's not okay, to use my lived experiences as a way to somehow "prove" that you know what you're talking about. And then do it while ignoring any of my words. Ignoring even the simplest request of how you should speak about me. And yet. That's what you do.

I'm autistic.

I'll repeat that again. I say that I'm autistic. I don't need any reasons, because it is my choice.

I have reasons. I have many. But none of them matter when it comes to the simple matter of if you know and choose not to use my word, that is not okay.

My identity.
Autistic.

I don't work in special ed

I don't work in special ed.
I work in education, yes.
I work with disabled children yes.
But I don't work in special ed.

I don't "special teach", I teach.

These aren't "special children", they're children.

There is nothing special about what I do besides the fact that I am actually recognizing the humanity in people and working with them despite what everything around me tells me I'm supposed to do. And their shouldn't be anything special about that.

Because they aren't special others who need some label of differing.

They're people who need it acknowledged that they are disabled. And accommodations rather than methods teaching them to be a way they aren't. And people who will treat them as human rather than subhuman "special" beings.

So, I don't work in any sort of special education, any sort of education which will other their students by it's own name. That's not what I do.

I work with disabled children. I work in education. I work with autistic students.
And that difference in language matters.