By Morrigan ivy

Trigger warnings: Mentions of nazis, child death, and ableism.

Recently my little store has been lucky enough to stock copies of “A is for Autistic” by Andrew Coltrin. It’s a fantastic resource that goes over terminology related to autism and is the perfect pocket-sized guide to keep with you as a reference. I jumped at the chance to stock it because I own an old copy that was a necessary tool when I was first diagnosed with autism. This old copy is “A is for Aspergers”, hence why I wanted to talk about that term a bit.

Before I carry on, I want to be clear that Andrew’s old use of Aspergers isn’t a huge deal and it never stopped his work being hugely impactful for me. What I want to talk about here is why the term Asperges is falling out of use, not to demonize or be angry at neurodivergent people who did or does identify with the term. Many people still have aspergers as an offical diagnosis as the disuse of the term has only come about in the last ten years.

The Term Aspergers is named after Hans Asperger, a person not officially in the nazi party during the holocaust but actively working with them. He would identify children with learning disabilities and send them to Spiegelgrund, where they were murdered or experimented on. It feels reasonable that many people don’t want their disability associated with someone who actively hated the disabled and believed in racial purity.

Asperges is also a term used to separate acceptable autistics from the unacceptable. Having Asperges would signify to neurotypical individuals that you may have a disability but it’s not going to be an inconvenience and allow them to see you as an intelligent individual. To be autistic means you need more help and, often in neurotypical eyes, less capable as an individual.  It creates separation in the community and ignores the fact that even if you’re a high-functioning autistic you will still need accommodation, there is no way to be autistic in our world and not struggle.

These are the two main reasons Aspergers has fallen out of use, and I agree with that. It’s associated with nazi’s and ablest ideas of autism.