How not to write about autism

The National Autistic Society has a useful checklist called “How to talk and write about autism“.

Unfortunately it’s a bit hidden away on their website. It takes three clicks to get to it (starting, non-intuitively, with the contact page) and then you have to download a pdf.

It needs to be more easily accessible. And I wish some writers and editors would read it before they publish books.

When “candidate” is a crime against English

I originally posted this on LinkedIn under the title “Why I’m not doing job interviews for freelance work”. I was quite cross.

It’s autism awareness month and I’ve made a decision about my business.

I am no longer going to do job interviews.

You might be asking, why are you doing job interviews when you’re not looking for a job? I’ve been asking myself the same question.

Things that autism is not

I know we have autism awareness days and months every year but they don’t seem to be working. There are still a lot of misconceptions around.

Here are some things that autism is not:

• An illness. You don’t have “symptoms” and you can’t be “cured” (and most of us would not want to change anyway).
• Something you suffer from. (Some of us suffer from the way other people treat autistics, but that’s another issue. Check out “social model of disability”.)
• An excuse for bad behaviour.
• A get-out-of-jail-free card.

Don’t call me a guy

The “All the Young Dudes” LP sleeve.

This is how old I am. When I first heard the song All The Young Dudes, I wanted to be one of them. A few years later, I was hugely disappointed to realise that “dude” meant a male person. So it wasn’t for me, after all. (A lot of things in music aren’t for females, it would turn out, but that’s another story.)

This is how old I am. When a young person selling something – or trying to sell something – to me and the people I am with calls us “you guys” I get cross.

Mainly this is because I don’t think it’s appropriate language for a business transaction. But partly it is because “guy”, like “dude” means a male person. Which I am not.

Some people will use “you guys” when addressing a mixed group. Presumably they think that only the men in the group actually count. But what if you’re talking to a group of women?

10 tips to improve your website copy

This is what the internet looks like these days.

I bet you thought I’d got hacked when you saw that headline. Because I would never use such awful click-baity writing. But I just have.

Why? On the basis of “if you can’t beat them, join them”.

Freelance or entrepreneur?

This is what you find if you search for “entrepreneur” on a stock image site. This came from Pixabay.

Do you call yourself an entrepreneur?

I belong to a lot of Facebook groups for freelances, and every now and then, someone will ask a question along these lines: “Do you call yourself an entrepreneur?”

Given that these groups all have the word “freelance” in the title, this seems like a strange question. Usually it is asked by someone who likes to call themselves an entrepreneur.

My immediate response is “Absolutely not. I hate it.”