CNN Reporter Elizabeth Landau called me at work one day because she found me via this blog. Boy, was I surprised. The article is entitled, Move to merge Asperger’s, autism in diagnostic manual stirs debate.
Let me know what you think about this issue.
Personally, I don’t mind being called “autistic”. I have children who are also on the spectrum (my oldest son is more of a high-functioning Kanner’s Autistic), and the similarities between myself and them far outweigh the differences. I can see the objections when it comes to getting support, and the general stigma, but… perhaps we could also stand to redefine ourselves? It really shouldn’t be “us Aspies” and “them Auties”.
Another blogger, Gavin Bollard, proposed an interesting solution: dividing it into 2 sections: Aspergers Autism and Kanners Autism:
http://life-with-aspergers.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-thoughts-on-changing-aspergers-label.html