The Need for Autism-Specific Programs in School

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

But what is equal treatment? This question raises the “dilemma of difference,” as legal scholar Martha Minow explains. “When does treating people differently emphasize their differences and stigmatize or hinder them on that basis? And when does treating people the same become insensitive to their difference and likely to stigmatize or hinder them on that basis?”[i]

---

[i] Martha Minow, Making All the Difference (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990), 20.

Jamie Mihoiko Doyle at Newsweek:

Frustratingly, autism programs are being emaciated under the veil of equity and efficiency: That by combining kids with autism who were receiving the support they needed with other children with various learning disabilities with less specialized support means that all needs will be met.

Why have all these children drink from specialized cups of autism support when they can drink from a special education trough instead?

Diluting support for these kids under the veil of equity and efficiency is dishonest. These actions are ableist.

"Equity" would be expanding these autism-specific programs across the county and the nation. Every child with my son's autism phenotype deserves the program that my son is enrolled in today.

Touting autism awareness while silently pulling the rug of support from under them are incongruous acts.

The assassination of autism-specific programs is a national issue. Just last year, schools in Houston, Texas eliminated their "autism services team", which was described by an educator as a "lifeline" for teachers.

Instead, the school district generalized the support into a "special education unit." Buffalo Public Schools in New York eliminated classes with the lowest student-to-teacher ratios for elementary school students with autism to "maximize resources."

...

 There is both a current and future demand for autism-specific services, suggesting a need to expand specialized programs and enhance the recruitment and retention of autism-trained paraeducators. Diluting autism support is short-sighted and jeopardizes their chances of achieving independence as adults.

Blue Envelopes in Arizona

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between first responders and autistic people.  Some jurisdictions allow autistic drivers to ask for a blue envelope to disclose the driver's diagnosis in case of an accident or traffic stop .

From Arizona DOT:

Arizona is launching a program through which drivers on the autism spectrum can place their credentials in special blue envelopes to enhance communication with law enforcement officers during traffic stops.

This voluntary program, which includes education for law enforcement officers, follows a model used successfully in Connecticut. The envelope will have instructions for the driver and law enforcement officer to follow and advise the officer that the driver may respond differently to instructions in situations that can increase anxiety.

To provide the necessary groundwork and training, the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division is partnering with the Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) and the University of Arizona’s Police Department, Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, and Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (ArizonaLEND) training program.

“When I heard about this program in Connecticut, I was extremely fascinated and intrigued to see if we could incorporate it here in Arizona,“ ADOT MVD Director Eric Jorgensen said. “MVD is thrilled to be partnering with DPS and the University of Arizona Police Department to help calm what can otherwise be potentially stressful situations.”

This program will function similarly to the one Connecticut established in 2020. The blue envelope is a voluntary way to hold important vehicle documents such as insurance and registration, while also being a communication tool between the driver and law enforcement during an interaction.

"This program provides explicit support for drivers who choose to participate," said Jennifer Casteix, UArizona Clinical Professor and ArizonaLEND faculty member. "Better understanding of communication differences should positively impact these interactions."

After his interim appointment at the University of Arizona in May 2023, Police Chief Chris Olson shared his desire to bring the Blue Envelope Program to the university. Creating partnerships with University of Arizona units that specialize in autism research and caring for the community have been key in laying the groundwork for this program at the University of Arizona.

According to Chief Olson, “The Blue Envelope program is an outstanding public safety initiative that seeks to improve communication between police officers and autistic drivers during traffic stops.”

Director Jeffrey Glover of the Arizona Department of Public Safety said, “The AZDPS is proud to support and be a part of the Blue Envelope Program. A program like this, seeking to enhance safety for both members of the public as well as all law enforcement officers in the State of Arizona, is absolutely invaluable.”

"We are implementing this program with an evidence-based approach to better support law enforcement and autistic drivers to improve safety outcomes," said Dr. Nell Maltman, UArizona Assistant Professor with the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.

Training with officers and volunteer drivers to simulate a traffic stop with the blue envelopes will be happening next week at the University of Arizona’s Tucson campus.

The envelopes are expected to be available through ADOT MVD offices, various law enforcement locations as well as other locations across the state starting in May.

For additional information about this program, please visit azdot.gov/BlueEnvelope.

Antivax Bucks

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong. A leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.

He is now running for president as an independent

 Rob Lever, Anuj Chopra and Marisha Goldhamer at AFP:

An anti-vaccine group founded by US presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr raised millions of dollars during the coronavirus pandemic, tax records show, boosting its coffers as it ramped up what experts call dangerous health misinformation.

Children's Health Defense (CHD), repeatedly called out for promoting vaccine falsehoods, collected about $46 million between 2020 and 2022, roughly 10 times its revenue in the three years preceding the pandemic.

CHD and four other non-profit organizations collectively raked in more than $100 million during that period, public tax records compiled by investigative news site ProPublica show.

...

CHD, which raked in $23.5 million in 2022 alone, has risen to become one of the world's top "alternative and natural medicine" websites, according to digital intelligence company Similarweb.

...

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, received about $510,000 in compensation for serving as CHD's chairman in 2022 -- more than double his pre-pandemic salary, records show.

The 70-year-old Kennedy is on leave from that role as he pursues his third-party presidential bid.

...

 Other well-funded anti-vaccine groups include Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), which pulled in $13.4 million in 2022, compared to just $1.4 million in 2017, public records show.

The group's founder Del Bigtree, who was hired by Kennedy to be his presidential campaign's communications director, was a vocal critic of masking during the pandemic and touted unproven Covid-19 treatments on his podcast.

Black Families and Autism Diagnosis

In The Politics of Autism, I write about the experiences of different economic, ethnic and racial groups.   Inequality is a big part of the story. 

 Wendy Chung at STAT:

In two separate studies of Black families with autism, partially funded by SPARK, investigators from Vanderbilt University and the University of Arkansas found that cultural barriers, stigma, and a basic lack of understanding of autism often led to delays in seeking an initial diagnosis. What’s more, when Black families did seek an evaluation or tried to access services, many experienced cultural bias and overt racism. Both studies underscore the role of misinformation, misperception, and misunderstanding in perpetuating false narratives about autism and increasing the amount of anxiety parents felt about receiving a diagnosis.

The Vanderbilt study documents the lived experience of 400 Black or multiracial families seeking care. In it, one in 10 parents said they delayed seeking an evaluation for their child because they simply did not know enough about autism and its signs. When Black parents did seek help, they often encountered a system misaligned with their needs. Parents noted evaluations that relied on toys and activities their children weren’t familiar with, clinicians who didn’t understand their culture, and a scarcity of available, affordable resources within their communities.

Autism Society Observes Autism Acceptance Month

 In The Politics of Autism, I write:

The most basic questions trigger angry arguments. For instance, into what category do we put autism in the first place? In 2013, President Obama said that “we’re still unable to cure diseases like Alzheimer's or autism or fully reverse the effects of a stroke.” The language of “disease” and “cure” offends some in the autism community. “We don’t view autism as a disease to be cured and we don’t think we need fixing,” says Ari Ne’eman of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. “We do feel comfortable with the word disability because we understand what it means.” From this perspective, autism is difference that requires accommodation, not an illness that requires eradication. Adherents of this position liken autism to homosexuality, which psychiatrists once deemed to be a  disorder. Conversely, some parents take offense at opposition to a cure. “Anyone with the mental and verbal ability to challenge autism research is not autistic on a scale that I care to recognize,” writes autism parent James Terminello. “Opposition to finding a cure is particularly hurtful to parents who still mourn the loss of the child that could have been. A line has been crossed.”

The Autism Society now observes Autism Acceptance Month, though not everyone agrees. 

 

Measles 2024

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

In Iowa, Nevada, Virginia, and Georgia, Trump has said:  "I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate."

Washington Post editorial:

This year is not yet one-third over, yet measles cases in the United States are on track to be the worst since a massive outbreak in 2019. At the same time, anti-vaccine activists are recklessly sowing doubts and encouraging vaccine hesitancy. Parents who leave their children unvaccinated are risking not only their health but also the well-being of those around them.
...
Vaccine hesitancy is being encouraged by activists who warn of government coercion, using social media to amplify irresponsible claims. An article published March 20 on the website of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense organization is headlined, “Be Very Afraid? CDC, Big Media Drum Up Fear of ‘Deadly’ Measles Outbreaks.” The author, Alan Cassels, claims that the news media is advancing a “a fear-mongering narrative,” and adds, “Those of us born before 1970 with personal experience pretty much all agree that measles is a big ‘meh.’ We all had it ourselves and so did our brothers, sisters and school friends. We also had chicken pox and mumps and typically got a few days off school. The only side effect of those diseases was that my mom sighed heavily and called work to say she had to stay home to look after a kid with spots.”

Today, he adds, “Big media and government overhyping the nature of an illness, which history has shown us can be a precursor to some very bad public health policies such as mandatory vaccination programs and other coercive measures.”

This is just wrong. The CDC reports that, in the decade before the measles vaccine became available in 1963, the disease killed 400 to 500 people, hospitalized 48,000 and gave 1,000 people encephalitis in the United States every year — and that was just among reported cases. The elimination of measles in the United States in 2000, driven by a safe and effective vaccine, was a major public health success. Although the elimination status still holds, the U.S. situation has deteriorated. The nation has been below 95 percent two-dose coverage for three consecutive years, and 12 states and the District below 90 percent. At the same time, the rest of the world must also strive to boost childhood vaccination rates, which slid backward during the covid-19 pandemic. According to the WHO, low-income countries — with the highest risk of death from measles — continue to have the lowest vaccination rates, only 66 percent.

The battle against measles requires a big — not a meh — effort.

RFK Jr. Update

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong. A leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.

He is now running for president as an independent

John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy were icons of their time, profiles in courage, and generational leaders.

RFK. Jr is also an icon - but for anti-vaxxers, conspiracists, and racists. pic.twitter.com/IpvpdVlHBP

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) April 12, 2024

Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman, Shane Goldmacher and Rebecca Davis O’Brien at NYT:

Allies of Donald J. Trump are discussing ways to elevate third-party candidates in battleground states to divert votes away from President Biden, along with other covert tactics to diminish Democratic votes.

They plan to promote the independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “champion for choice” to give voters for whom abortion is a top issue — and who also don’t like Mr. Biden — another option on the ballot, according to one person who is involved in the effort and who, like several others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans.

  Summer Concepcion, Ben Kamisar and Katherine Koretski at NBC:

A campaign staffer for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential bid has been fired after a video recently circulated of her talking about preventing President Joe Biden’s re-election by trying to send the race to the House of Representatives to potentially elect former President Donald Trump.

In a Wednesday night post to X, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, RFK Jr.’s campaign manager and daughter-in-law, said the campaign had fired New York-based staffer Rita Palma’s contract “for misrepresentation immediately upon seeing the longer video in which she gave an inaccurate job title and described a conversation that did not happen.”


Palma confirmed her termination from the campaign in a text message to NBC News, saying her time with RFK Jr.'s campaign "has been one of the best political adventures of my life filled with some of the finest people I’ve encountered, and I have encountered many."


"I hold no ill will and look forward to the next seven months of watching Bobby shine," she said.

Palma, who has long criticized vaccine mandates, had come under scrutiny over a recently uploaded video, obtained by NBC News, of a presentation she gave to try to sway Republican voters to help Kennedy qualify for New York’s presidential ballot. In the video, Palma said she is the campaign’s New York state director, which the campaign disputed, calling her a “ballot access consultant” uninvolved in electoral strategy.

 But Trump has no problem with blurting out the tactic. Edith Olmsted at The Daily Beast:

Donald Trump wants Democrats to vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—making the bizarre pitch in a new contradictory video announcement shared to Truth Social on Thursday.

He called the independent 2024 candidate a “radical left candidate,” but insisted that he was “a better man” than his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.

If I were a Democrat, I’d vote for RFK Jr. every single time over Biden, because he’s frankly more in line with Democrats,” the former president said.

Trump vaguely referenced RFK Jr.’s one-time support for the so-called “Green New Scam,” but didn’t provide much else in the way of comparison to Biden. The former president is banking on the idea that Democratic voters who are dissatisfied with Biden will flee to RFK Jr., even though the independent’s conspiracy theorizing, Jan. 6 hand-wringing, and some of his campaign staff’s explicit opposition to Biden have far more in common with Trump’s vengeful, reality-challenged rhetoric.

Purple Alert

The Politics of Autism discusses the problems of wandering and day-to-day safety.

In Alaska and other states, "silver alerts" notify the public and first responders when people with developmental disabilities go missing.  (Silver alerts were originally for the elderly.) Florida has purple alerts, and Maryland soon will.

Jospeh Olmo at WRC-TV Washington: 

A bill passed in the Maryland General Assembly on Wednesday aims to help families when a loved one with disabilities goes missing.

The Purple Alert bill is just a signature away from becoming law in the state. Under the bill, like for an Amber Alert or Silver Alert, authorities could broadcast widespread messages when people with some disabilities or cognitive impairments, such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or Down syndrome, go missing.

The bill comes after Rashawn Williams, a Maryland man who has Down syndrome, was missing for nearly a week last year. He was finally found in a back room of a Metro station.

In October of last year, his father, Jimmy Hall, lived through an experience no parent wants to imagine; his son was gone for days.

“He was in complete darkness. No food, no water, no facilities. Poor air quality,” Hall said. “He was in solitary confinement for nearly a week,”

Hall dedicated his time to make sure a new tool is available for families who, one day, could find themselves in the same situation.

In testimony, Delegate Michele Guyton -- the prime sponsor -- explained the need for the bill:

 For a Silver Alert, the individual must be at least 60 years of age, have a cognitive impairment, be in danger, and be traveling in a vehicle. This leaves a dangerous gap for Marylanders who don’t fit into those categories. Initiating a Purple Alert system when children and adults with cognitive disabilities go missing in Maryland would help close that gap. Many other states have done so since efforts to pass this initiative at the federal level have stalled. Hopefully we will have a national Purple Alert System soon, but until then Maryland should protect our most vulnerable citizens.

 

"AUTISTIC PERSON AREA"

 In The Politics of Autism, I write about the everyday struggles facing autistic people and their families -- including safety on the streets.

Madeleine Wright at CBS Philadelphia:

A Philadelphia father has been working to protect people with autism by installing street signs with the goal of getting drivers to slow down.

Residents might notice new signs throughout Philadelphia that read "autistic person area."

Eric Williams is the man behind the very personal campaign. He's the founder of Project Elijah Empowering Autism, or PEEA, a nonprofit named after his son, who was diagnosed with the disorder at age 3.

"We need to bring more awareness to motorists," Williams said. "We see a lot of hit-and-runs going on lately."

The signs are meant to send a message to drivers because a person with autism may cross the street with little warning. Interested families can fill out an online application. 

Axis of Crackpots

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.   Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures. 

The anti-vax movement has a great deal of overlap with MAGA, QAnon, and old-school conspiracy theory.

Kate Briquelet at The Daily Beast:

The sister of Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn and a band of conservative anti-vax activists are running for the board of a renowned public hospital in Florida under the banner of “medical freedom.”

If they win, they’ll hold a majority over Sarasota’s award-winning facility where one of their allies—elected in 2022 with two other “health freedom candidates” to the nine-member panel—is already trying to peddle vaccine misinformation.

The rogues’ gallery includes Mary Flynn O’Neill, who directs her brother’s nonprofit and routinely appears on right-wing shows with QAnon conspiracy theorists; Tanya Parus, the president of Moms For America’s Sarasota chapter and co-owner of a “freedom-based” health clinic, and Tamzin Rosenwasser, a dermatologist who once railed against the Federation of State Medical Boards’s warning to doctors who spread COVID vaccine misinformation, comparing the organization to Stalin’s secret police.

Michael Flynn posted this picture today. I was finally able to locate a full view of the board behind him. (Telegram) (1/2) pic.twitter.com/y7vTg9TFXa

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) July 6, 2021

The list includes familiar figures from the antivax movement:

• Del Bigtree (now RFK Jr.'s comms director)
• Rashad [sic, Rashid] Buttar
• Charleen [sic, Charlene] Bollinger
• Robert Kennedy, Jr.
• Judy Mikovits
• Sherry [sic, Sherri] Tenpenny
• Dr. [Andrew] Wakefield

There may be others whose names are too hard to read in the photograph.

Acetaminophen Study

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss various ideas about what causes the condition. 

If you listened to Sirius XM last year, you may have heard radio ads about a class action lawsuit alleging that acetaminophen causes it.  A judge nixed it. From the ruling: "the plaintiffs do not have admissible evidence to demonstrate that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen causes either ASD or ADHD in offspring."

And now this: Ahlqvist VH, Sjöqvist H, Dalman C, et al. Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy and Children’s Risk of Autism, ADHD, and Intellectual Disability. JAMA. 2024;331(14):1205–1214. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.3172

Question Does acetaminophen use during pregnancy increase children’s risk of neurodevelopmental disorders?

Findings In this population-based study, models without sibling controls identified marginally increased risks of autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) associated with acetaminophen use during pregnancy. However, analyses of matched full sibling pairs found no evidence of increased risk of autism (hazard ratio, 0.98), ADHD (hazard ratio, 0.98), or intellectual disability (hazard ratio, 1.01) associated with acetaminophen use.

Meaning Acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability in sibling control analyses. This suggests that associations observed in other models may have been attributable to confounding.

Lit Review on Prenatal Cannabis Exposure

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss various ideas about what causes the condition. Studies have ruled out vaccines as a cause of autism, but there is a very long and growing list of other correlates, risk factors, and possible causes that have been the subject of serious studies.  This blog has identified at least 41 such items.  Cannabis is one of them.

Tadesse AW, Dachew BA, Ayano G, Betts K, Alati R. Prenatal cannabis use and the risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder in offspring: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Psychiatr Res. 2024 Mar;171:142-151. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.01.045. Epub 2024 Jan 23. PMID: 38281464.

Abstract

Background: It is plausible that exposure to cannabis in-utero could be associated with an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during childhood and adolescence; however, mixed results have been reported. This study investigated whether there is an association between prenatal cannabis use and ADHD symptoms and ASD in offspring using a systematic review and meta-analysis methodology.

Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed/Medline, Scopus, EMBASE, Web of Science, Psych-Info, and Google Scholar to identify relevant studies. The study protocol has been preregistered in the Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) (CRD42022345001), and the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOS) was used to assess the methodological quality of included studies. An inverse variance weighted random effect meta-analysis was conducted to pool the overall effect estimates from the included studies.

Results: Fourteen primary studies, consisting of ten on ADHD and four on ASD, with a total of 203,783 participants, were included in this study. Our meta-analysis underscores an increased risk of ADHD symptoms and/or disorder [β = 0.39: 95 % CI (0.20-0.58), I2 = 66.85 %, P = 0.001)] and ASD [RR = 1.30: 95 % CI (1.03-1.64), I2 = 45.5 %, P = 0.14] associated with in-utero cannabis exposure in offspring compared to their non-exposed counterparts. Additionally, our stratified analysis highlighted an elevated risk of ADHD symptoms [β = 0.54: 95 % CI (0.26-0.82)] and a marginally significant increase in the risk of diagnostic ADHD among exposed offspring compared to non-exposed counterparts [RR = 1.13, 95 % CI (1.01, 1.26)].

Conclusion: This study indicated that maternal prenatal cannabis exposure is associated with a higher risk of ADHD symptoms and ASD in offspring.

Keywords: ADHD; ASD; Cannabis; Marijuana; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Offspring; Pregnancy; Prenatal.

Person-First and Identity-First in Scholarly Writing

From the preface to The Politics of Autism.

A major theme of this book is that just about everything concerning autism is subject to argument. There is not even any consensus on what one should call people who have autism and other disabilities. “In the autism community, many self-advocates and their allies prefer terms such as `Autistic,’ `Autistic person,’ or `Autistic individual’ because we understand autism as an inherent part of an individual’s identity,” writes blogger Lydia Brown.[i] Other writers prefer “people-first” language (e.g., “persons with autism”) since it puts the persons ahead of the disability and describes what they have, not who they are.[ii] For the sake of stylistic variety, this book uses both kinds of language, even though this approach will satisfy neither side. I can only say that I mean no offense.

Zajic, M. C., & Gudknecht, J. (2024). Person- and identity-first language in autism research: A systematic analysis of abstracts from 11 autism journals. Autism, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241241202

Lay abstract:

There are many ways to refer to an individual who is on the autism spectrum. A recommended approach has been to use person-first language (PFL), such as “person with autism.” A different approach is to use identity-first language (IFL), such as “autistic person.” Recent studies focused on different groups of people (e.g. autistic self-advocates, parents, and practitioners) show that some groups prefer PFL (practitioners) while others prefer IFL (autistic self-advocates). However, less is known about how researchers use PFL and IFL in academic writing (e.g. studies published in scientific journals) involving autistic research participants. Our study examined 12,962 journal abstracts (short summaries of scientific articles) from 11 academic journals that publish autism research findings. We wanted to know (a) about the use of PFL and IFL across abstracts, and (b) how PFL and IFL use has changed annually over time. We examined data for all journals individually and grouped together. Our findings showed that journal abstracts generally use PFL (65%) with some using either IFL (16%) or both PFL and IFL (20%). However, journals varied, with some showing a clear majority for PFL and a couple for IFL. Examining trends over time across journals showed that while PFL appeared to be the majority for most journals, IFL has steadily increased in the recent few years. Our study helps us understand how autism researchers write about autistic individuals and offers implications for helping researchers intentionally make choices about the language used in their autism research studies.

From the article:

Our findings highlight a shift in the language autism researchers use to write about autistic participants, particularly within the last few years. If we had conducted this review even five years earlier, our findings would have shown clear PFL dominance. There are many potential reasons for this trend to have emerged just within the last few years within the broader writing community of autism researchers. One is the change in the APA Manual guidelines from PFL only to endorsing both PFL and IFL (APA, 2010, 2020). Journals commonly cite these guidelines and others for authors to follow when preparing manuscripts for submission (see Supplemental Table 1). Furthermore, the increasing awareness of the neurodiversity movement and the impact of autistic voices in autism research has led to increased awareness for both researchers as well as practitioners about how language impacts autistic individuals (e.g. Botha & Cage, 2022; Brown, 2023; Dwyer et al., 2022; Monk et al., 2022).