The question was asked elsewhere. Here is my response.

Dear ....., Yes, I do. I had my tbi in 1985 (car accident). And it
wasn't a "little cut on my finger", as I'm sure you know what I mean.
Ten years later, I wanted to see how much brain power I had left. I
went back to school and took up an MA in special education. My thesis
was "Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation:
Survivors' Perspectives" (1996). I did a lot of newletters in those
days for the Brain Injury Network of Sonoma County, Inc, my
organization. I wrote about "survivors" (less commonly used in those
days by our "special population".) After that I remember that the
California Brain Injury Association (of that time) announced that
people with brain injuries were not be be refered to as "survivors".
That ticked me off. If I wanted to say I was a survivor why was it
any of their business to tell me I couldn't? Well, that particular
Ca. Brain Injury Association was removed as a affiliate, eventually,
for other reasons. We had no Brain Injury Association (connected to
national) for quite a few years. Now there is a new one. What I want
them to know, among other things, is that if somebody like me wants
to call myself a brain injury survivor, that is just how it is going
to be. Hence, I do operate the SABI forum (survivor acquired brain
injury) which is connected to the braininjurynetwork.

sabisue