For the uninformed, functioning labels are terms like high functioning autism, low functioning autism, mild autism, severe autism. Other words like moderate or level 1, level 2, etc may be used too.
Functioning labels are extremely offensive because they’re placed on autistic people based on observation from the outside. This is problematic for three reasons.
Functioning labels determine how autistic people are treated. People associate “low functioning/severe” with incompetence or infancy and they end up treating the autistic person like a pet or a baby. High functioning/mild gets stereotyped as people who are just a little quirky and their difficulties get ignored as laziness or intentional stubbornness.
Functioning labels imply brokenness and treat people as if their intrinsic value is determined by what they contribute to society rather than the fact that they are a living being with oxygen in their lungs and blood in their veins like everybody else.
Functioning labels create a dichotomy as if there are differing “levels” of autism or that people exist on different areas of the spectrum. NO, NO, NO, that’s not how it is.
Think of spectroscopy and how the elements create their own signature color lines. Now put peoples’ names in place of the elements: Hydrogen/Harold, Helium/Henry, Lithium/Luke, Oxygen/Olga, Carbon/Carol, Nitrogen/Nadine.
Autism is like that. We’re all on the same spectrum and all that is unique is how we display our symptoms, our sensory issues, our splinter abilities and so forth.
In light of that, I want to change the language. Let’s start pushing for support levels instead of functioning labels.
High support: Anyone who isn’t able to live independently and needs help with some or all of their basic daily living skills such as eating, bathing, basic grooming, putting on makeup, getting dressed and completing tasks. Can be abbreviated online or in writing as HSP for High Support Person or HSAP for High Support Autistic Person.
Usage in speech: Clarissa is a high support autistic person and needs assistance with getting dressed and taking a shower. Abbreviated usage online: I’m a HSAP and I’m really into physics, so the poor sucker who signs me on is gonna hear a lot about it when they hand me my iPad!
Medium support: Anyone may or may not live independently and doesn’t need help with basic living skills, but needs help with other things like cooking, completing some tasks, transportation if unable to drive and assistance for things like grocery shopping. Can be abbreviated online or in writing as MSP for Medium Support Person or MSAP for Medium Support Autistic Person.
Usage in speech: Kevin is a medium support autistic person and needs some assistance to prepare meals and shop for the wood he uses for his carpentry projects. His boyfriend, Max, usually helps him with those. Usage online: I’m a MSAP and I’m looking for info about saws. Any fellow auties know what’s best for cutting oak?
Low support: Anyone who more often than not lives independently and may only need assistance with minor things like balancing a checkbook, getting started on some tasks like organizing a garage sale or arranging to move from one house to another. Can be abbreviated online or in writing as LSP for Low Support Person or LSAP for Low Support Autistic Person.
Usage in speech: Jesse is a low support autistic person and she only needs help keeping her checkbook balanced. Usage online: I’m a LSAP and I’m thinking about moving to Seattle. What’s the weather and traffic like there?
Reasons support levels are better:
They don’t make assumptions about intelligence
They don’t encourage infantilization or pity
They sound more respectful and dignified
Ditch functioning labels and start using support levels. These terms can apply to practically every kind of disability, not just autism.
For the record, I’m a MSAP.
Please reblog this whether you’re disabled or not. Make this viral.
im gonna be that autistic asshole and say that these do not look at ALL better than the high/low functioning labels except in name.
in fact, the “levels” described are exactly what people think of when they divide autistic ppl into “function” terms, and the fact is that all of these are useless bc your average autistic person is “high” in some areas and “low” in others.
Example, myself: I am quite good at managing my money and doing things like organizing moves/garage sales/other projects. I can also go to school/work and come home regularly with little to no problem. But I have STUPID amounts of trouble doing things like feeding myself and most of the basic living skills under high support. I cannot live alone and eat/do laundry/other necessary tasks regularly, but I am extremely capable of keeping financial resources, taking care of my cat, and everything you’ve defined as a “minor task”. I live independently right now and while I am not dead, I’m not doing too great bc my eating is at stupidfuckdiculous levels of fail and lose. But I can do well enough in school to keep a fellowship, do multiple classes and work 4 jobs. …where do I fall on this? Nowhere.
These are just functioning labels, rebranded.
And this is even before getting into how abilities and skillsets can change (sometimes a LOT) over the course of one autistic person’s life, much less variance among different individuals.
Nypicals would still use it like ableist language. Like: “Oh you seem so normal, I’d never have guessed you were MSAP.” ::immediately starts babying the ASD person::
It’s tricky to find some way of communicating how we are to nypicals. Even other ASD folks have trouble. I have way more anxiety issues than Beloved, and I would be a rich person if I had a dollar for every time I got told, “just get over it.”
It’s taken literal years, but I’m finally getting some of the emotional support I need. My method? Keep explaining until they either get it or give up.
Yeah. “Emotionally draining” is just the start of it.
autistic pride is so important because autistic children like myself are constantly treated as and made to feel like burdens to their loved ones, their family, and even society as a whole.
we literally get people saying things like “if i was autistic, i would kill myself” and caretakers who get sympathy for wanting to kill autistic kids. people will justify our existence only by how productive we are and how neurotypical we can appear. when parents find out their kid
My child Tyrone has spent almost his entire life here, English is the only language he hears, yet now, at 9 years of age, the government are going to deport myself and my son to the Philippines because of his autism. I've worked for years, raising my son and studying to be a nurse.
sciencehabit writes “Many physicians and parents report that their autistic children have unusually severe gastrointestinal problems, such as chronic constipation or diarrhea. These observations have led some researchers to speculate that an ailing gut contributes to the disorder in some cases, but …
Further evidence for the gut microbe theory of Autism…
(The image is an overturned tanker, a colossus in white, blue, and red on a blue, relatively calm sea. It is lying on its side. The puzzle piece logo and the words ‘Autism Speaks,’ in the characteristic font and shade of blue, have been Photoshoped onto the side. It is captioned ‘Your ship of fail Listeth, sire).
Please pass these things around when you see them. The Internet runs on rumors and self-fulfilling prophecies.
I've become pretty confident in my ability to assist adolescent Autistic/Aspergers students with superb verbal skills and mild-to-negligible behavior issues.
Student is now pretty good at sniffing out when others are teasing him under the guise of "just being friendly" and is able to tell them...
I'm not a teacher, but I am a mum of two kids on the ASD rainbow.
I've become pretty confident in my ability to assist adolescent Autistic/Aspergers students with superb verbal skills and mild-to-negligible behavior issues.
Student is now pretty good at sniffing out when others are teasing him under the guise of "just being friendly" and is able to tell them…
I’m not a teacher, but I am a mum of two kids on the ASD
Hey guys, please reblog if you would like a book with an autistic main character.
I’m thinking of seeing if I could get my NaNoWriMo work published, and I would like to show any agents/publishers that there would be a market for such a book.
You can spot her from a mile away. The one kid playing alone. Lost in her own little world. She clearly wears a mixture of hand-me-downs and homemade clothing when all the other children are wearing clothes, relatively new, from the shops.
Some other children are approaching her. Even from this distant vantage point, you can tell their intent is not friendly. They are all bigger than her. Together, they could beat her into a pulp, but violence is not their pastime
