Glossary

This may be useful for people who aren’t familiar with the language used in the Autistic community.

Abled – nondisabled

Ableism – prejudice and discrimination against disabled people

Allistic – nonautistic

Aspie – Aspergian person

Aspergian – 1) an adjectival (descriptive word) form of  Asperger’s syndrome. 2) an Aspergian person.

Autist – Autistic person

Neurology – the way a person’s brain works

Neurotypical (NT) – having a brain that works in a way that society considers to be normal – refers to people who aren’t autistic and don’t have learning difficulties, mental health conditions, synesthesia, ADHD or any other brain based disability or difference. (NT originally meant nonautistic. Some people still use it to mean nonautistic, but I use it to mean ‘normal-brained’.)

Special interest – an Autistic person’s intense passion

Spectrum – autism is often referred to as a spectrum because the ways in which people are autistic, and the intensity of their autistic traits, are highly diverse. If someone is ‘on the autism spectrum’, this means they are autistic (including  Asperger’s syndrome and PDD-NOS). (ie. humans are not ‘all on the spectrum somewhere’.)

Stim – a repetitive, comforting behaviour such as rocking, hand flapping, spinning or fidgeting with objects. Short for self-stimulatory behaviour. See also The Stimming Checklist.

Stim toy – an object used to facilitate stimming, for example a stress ball that is fidgeted with