#ActuallyAutistic is a hashtag autistic people use to mark posts written from their own experience, as distinct from content about autism produced by parents, clinicians or charities. Rhetoric scholar Ruth Osorio writes that autistic activists “created the #ActuallyAutistic hashtag in 2011 to claim an autistic space” (Enculturation, 2020).
Origin
Osorio’s account, published in the journal Enculturation on May 26, 2020, places the tag’s start on Tumblr: the hashtag arose because non-autistic users were using the general autism tag to spread harmful framings, and autistic writers responded by tagging their own posts. Per the same article, “the tag originated on the blogging site Tumblr,” and autistic users “quickly transported it” to Twitter by 2012 (Enculturation).
The tag sits within an older self-advocacy movement. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), which describes itself as “run by and for autistic people” (ASAN), was co-founded on October 27, 2006, by Ari Ne’eman and Scott Michael Robertson (Wikipedia). Its mission statement closes with the disability-rights slogan “Nothing About Us, Without Us!”
How It’s Used
Osorio calls the hashtag “a nexus of autistic organizing online.” She documents users sharing stories of anti-autistic bias, celebrating positive portrayals of autistic people, and circulating art and writing by autistic creators (Enculturation). Common uses include:
- Signal-boosting autistic-authored articles, research and art.
- Asking other autistic people for advice or shared experience.
- Responding to media coverage or campaigns about autism.
A frequent target of criticism in the tag has been Autism Speaks, founded in February 2005 by Bob Wright. Autistic rights advocates “have criticized Autism Speaks for seeking a cure,” and the organisation dropped the word “cure” from its mission statement in 2016 (Wikipedia).
The tag is related to, but separate from, #AutismAcceptance, the broader #Neurodivergent tag and #DisabilityRights. See also #AutismAcceptanceVsAwareness.
Key Terms and Timeline
| Term or event | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Identity-first language (“autistic person”) | Endorsed by “a large percentage of autistic adults” in a 2016 survey of 3,470 UK residents | Kenny et al., Autism, 2016 |
| Person-first language (“person with autism”) | The alternative wording; the same survey found “no single way of describing autism that is universally accepted” | Kenny et al., 2016 |
| Double empathy problem | Mutual misunderstanding between autistic and non-autistic people, set out by Damian Milton in a 2012 paper | National Autistic Society; Stimpunks |
| 2005 | Autism Speaks founded | Wikipedia |
| 2006 | ASAN co-founded | Wikipedia |
| 2011 | #ActuallyAutistic created on Tumblr | Enculturation |
| 2012 | Tag in use on Twitter | Enculturation |
| 2016 | Autism Speaks drops “cure” from its mission | Wikipedia |
Sources
- https://enculturation.net/I_Am_ActuallyAutistic
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autistic_Self_Advocacy_Network
- https://autisticadvocacy.org/about-asan/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_Speaks
- https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/which-terms-should-be-used-to-describe-autism-perspectives-from-t/
- https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/double-empathy
- https://stimpunks.org/glossary/double-empathy-problem/