Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with a highly diverse set of challenges, disabilities, impairments and strengths. Recently, it has been suggested that researchers and practitioners avoid using certain words to describe the difficulties and impairments experienced by individuals with ASD to reduce stigma. The proposed limitations on terminology were developed by only a subset of the autism community, and the recommendations are already causing negative consequences that may be harmful to future scientific and clinical endeavors and, ultimately, to people with ASD. No one should have the power to censor language to exclude the observable realities of autism. Scientists and clinicians must be able to use any scientifically accurate terms necessary to describe the wide range of autistic people they study and support, without fear of censure or retribution.

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This chapter refers to Ben, a child with autism who the author met during a make-up music class, that reminded her of Jonah at music class when he was two. It talks about mothers of autistic children, who find an ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) diagnosis to be nothing and consider it a minor bump in the developmental road that they would swap for in a heartbeat. It also looks at children with ADHD that grow into young people who go to college, pursue careers, live independently, get married, and have families, while kids with autism have indeterminate futures. The chapter recounts how Jonah was kicked out of his in-district autistic support class after breaking a teacher's nose when he was eight years old. It emphasizes how living with any disorder makes any person an expert.

This chapter cites a Pennsylvania family that was kicked out of a Friendly's restaurant because their autistic five-year-old was crying and a Tennessee mother who was asked to leave a pizzeria because her autistic toddler was disturbing other customers. It talks about autistic children who have been escorted off airplanes, expelled from public gardens, and ejected from Finding Dory, a children's movie commonly interpreted as a story about disability. It also reviews online debates that erupt between those who plead for empathy and inclusion for children with autism and those who berate parents for expecting others to accommodate their children's disruptive behavior. The chapter elaborates how the strangeness of autistic behavior disturbs people, and not simply the volume of the noise. It refers to scholars that have argued against the depiction of the physically and intellectually disabled as “other.”