Preference of the terms "Autistic" or "Person with Autism"?

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I have recently been communicating with my father about what is the preferred terminology by the majority of the autism community, particularly from other autistic individuals, and whether the more preferred term is "autistic" or "person with autism". I was just hoping that I could use a forum topic to gather sufficient quantities of people's personal preferences so that we can come to a conclusion on what autistic people's personal preference for a term referring to an autistic person actually is. For reference I consider the term "autistic" to be the favoured term, as it is more efficient to say (1 word vs. 3 words), and helps describe who I am, as a specific subcategory of human (if one is categorising humans by neurotype), whilst my father is under the impression that the politically correct term (from a neurotypical mindset) is "person with autism". He himself has ADHD and possibly autism, whilst I have been diagnosed with autism, and so I am not assuming there is any one correct term to refer to autistic people, but just want to collect information on what is the predominantly favoured term, so that we can settle our dispute, as it is a recurring dispute.

Note: If you prefer neither term, I am also curious as to what other words exist for conveying the same information that you instead prefer?

This is a potentially complicated discussion. Besides personal preference I think things could vary due to personal backgrounds and severity of symptoms. (I'm guessing someone with mild symptoms might be more comfortable with casual terminology.)

And there are other choices, "Autistic Person", "Autie", and "Autist" come to mind. And for folk with mild symptoms, also "Aspie" and "High Functioning Autistic".

I suppose I think the correct answer varies based upon what the individual prefers.

But, really, first choice should maybe be their name.

I think "Autistic" and "Autistic Person" are both viable candidates.

I'll admit that when I think about it, I'm not too crazy about "Person with Autism". To me that sounds like Autism is some kind of viral infection. But, other folk might like the term.

When speaking about myself I'll use autistic.
When I'm speaking about others on the spectrum whichever version happens to fall out of my brain at the time is the one which gets used.

I prefer "Autistic". As it says in my signature Autism is a part of who I am, unlike cancer which invaded me seven years ago. The few surveys I have seen of people on the spectrum have concluded that vast majority of us prefer autistic.

When I was first diagnosed and joined WP the media and autism professionals almost unanimously used "person with autism". Now use is interchangeable.

I'm autistic -- ​I disregard whatever functioning levels I currently have and is related to the core of who I'm as a person; how I feel, think, perceive and process differently.

I have autism -- my functioning level matters please be easy on me and it's about what I can and cannot do so be mindful about it.


I care not anymore.
The cause of inconsistency over my functioning, expression and processing isn't even related to autism, but autism reads that inconsistency in it's own lens.

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I have Autism
I have Schizophrenia
I have Trigeminal Neuralgia
and so on

I have things. They're things on top of me, my person. They're part of me, but they only explain things about me within the context of the signs and symptoms of each.

Autistic. PWA is way too long winded and a bit silly.
I mean - I am also old, but don't describe myself as a PWO.

I've only told a couple of people in the last few years of my dx, and have used "autistic" both times.
And once it is established, I fall back to my preferred word which is "aspie"