They say a picture speaks a thousand words which is exactly why we commissioned the incredible illustrator, Jonathan Raiseborough, to help us explain why language matters when it comes to how we speak about autism and autistic people.

Coinciding with the launch of this year’s Autism Acceptance Week which kicks off today, the series of three illustrations are a light-hearted take on an important matter.

Jonathan, who is also an ambassador for the North East Autism Society and the illustrator of Snowdrop the Spikeshuffler, said: “I loved the idea of showing the issues with ‘person-first’ language using cartoons; taking the wording and swapping it into different contexts is a great way to illustrate how silly it can sound to us!
“It’s fantastic to have a charity like the North East Autism Society supporting and platforming content like this because how we speak about autism is so important. The vast majority of the autistic community prefer ‘identity first’ language (autistic person) over ‘person first’ (person with autism) since autism is part of us, not separate, and accepting that means accepting us!” The series of three illustrations will be shared throughout this week, starting with ‘has autism’ today.