You don’t define a cat by its ability to bark


Genetics and the mixing of genes keep the world’s population diverse. Diversity is healthy and people are all physically different from each other. In any given crowd there will be people of different appearance, races, heights, hair colour. There will also be a wide difference in things you can’t see such as academic abilities, cognition, religions, political views. Finally, there will also a difference in how each and every one of those people perceive and interact with the world around them. It is in this third difference where autism is found and current studies indicate that 1 in every 100 people in the UK are autistic.

The neurodiversity of the population is wide but there is a distinction drawn between the neurotypical and the neurodivergent. Autistic people are neurodivergent, they think in a different way to the majority, the other 99 in 100, of the population.

Collins English Dictionary has this definition “Autism is a developmental disorder that can cause someone to have difficulty in communicating with and responding to other people.[1]

The National Autistic Society (NAS) is the leading authority on autism and provides a gateway to autistic services in the UK. The definition of autism given by NAS is as follows; “Autism is a lifelong developmental disability which affects how people communicate and interact with the world.[2].  While I appreciate all that the NAS do I feel that I disagree with both of these definitions. This is, of course, my personal blog so the opinions expressed are solely my own and do not necessarily express the views or opinions of the wider autistic community.

First and foremost, I dislike that both of these definitions claim autism to be a developmental disability/disorder. Developmental indicates something which starts during a child’s developmental period. As autism is largely thought to be genetic in nature this definition does not sit well with the current scientific findings. Autism is thought to be present at birth and not something which develops during childhood. Theories of autism being caused by emotional disturbance and/or neglect were left for dead in the 1950’s[3] and biological factors are now the most commonly accepted view. I feel that defining autism as a developmental disability is wrong and for an organisation such as NAS to be reinforcing this view is upsetting.

Secondly, the word disability is unhelpful language to be using. There are some who are advocating taking control of the word disability and using it in a positive manner.[4] The problem is that the majority of people see the negative definition and this may not change for some time. At the end of the day using the phrase “developmental disability” is defining a person by what they cannot do and you don’t define a cat by its ability to bark.

Thirdly, their definition says that autism affects how people communicate ... with the world. I am autistic but I don’t have any communication difficulties and can often communicate much better than many of the neurotypical people I meet so the communication part doesn’t always apply. Many autistic people communicate differently but I think this is a generalisation and not a definition.

Finally, saying that autism affects how autistic people interact with the world is defining autism based on a world that has been created for the neurotypical. It’s a form of ableism[5]. If you are left handed then you may struggle to use items such as scissors that have been created entirely for right handed people. The world has been designed for the neurotypical and defining those who cannot interact with it so easily by their inability to do so is unfair. 

So that’s some official definitions torn apart. Can I do any better, where’s my definition?  Well maybe I can, maybe I can’t. I imagine the response to these objections would be that the definitions given above are designed to try and communicate a very complex diagnosis to the general population in only a few words. That the definition should not use specialist language or less commonly understood phrases but isn’t that exactly the issue. That the definition should not be to appease the needs and understanding of the neurotypical.

Autism is often described as a spectrum, as the common phrase goes “if you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person”. Spectrum conditions are by their very nature difficult to define, they are complex and wide reaching. The NHS have a better definition on their website simply through the use of the word “may” [6];

Autistic people may act in a different way to other people. Autistic people may:

  • find it hard to communicate and interact with other people
  • find it hard to understand how other people think or feel
  • find things like bright lights or loud noises overwhelming, stressful or uncomfortable
  • get anxious or upset about unfamiliar situations and social events
  • take longer to understand information
  • do or think the same things over and over"

I feel this is a much better attempt to describe some of the factors that may or may not be involved in someone’s diagnosis without using words like “disorder”. 

Perhaps my favourite definition comes from an article by Jodie Hare  [7], where she passively defines autism as “a neurotype that exists as a result of natural biological variation.”

I've thought a lot about what my personal definition would be, I'm going to go with...

Autism is a lifelong series of neurodivergent traits where perceptions and interactions with a world built by and for the neurotypical may be considerably different to those experienced by the neurotypical.

It's clunky but I'm sticking with it for now. How would you define autism?


[1] Collins English Dictionary, https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/autism

[2] What is autism?, https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism

[3] Autism History Project, https://blogs.uoregon.edu/autismhistoryproject/people/312-2/

[4] The problem with the definition of disability, https://disabilityunion.co.uk/the-problem-with-the-definition-of-disability/

[5] Ableism 101, https://www.accessliving.org/newsroom/blog/ableism-101/

[6] What is Autism, https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/what-is-autism/

[7] Autism is not a disease, https://novaramedia.com/2021/11/25/autism-is-not-a-disease/

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