My name is Gina Andrews. I am a 23-year-old vet tech student on the autism spectrum. Although I enjoy looking up humorous definitions on urbandictionary.com, I was not laughing when it was brought to my attention that the website has such listings as:
"Autismal: when someone's anger reaches autistic levels."
"Autisian: When someone acts dumb or retarded."
"Touch of the aut: A smidge of autism. A bit retarded."
You may argue that this is the internet and that urbandictionary is supposed to be somewhat off-color, but there's a line between humorously off-color and offensive to a marginalized and commonly targeted demographic.
CNN reports that autistic children are bullied almost five times as frequently as children who aren't autistic. Psychologytoday reports that autistic children are 28x more likely to attempt suicide" than those off the spectrum. The conversation reports that 12.3% of autistic people are homeless, which is much higher than the general rate of homelessness, which is 1%. The numbers don't lie: autistic people are discriminated against across society. We as a society are long overdue for a change in attitude toward people on the spectrum, yet Urban Dictionary seems to condone the posting of words and definitions that are derogatory against a widely persecuted minority. Please, Urban Dictionary, remove these publications to help set an example for the rest of the world.
