Is Asperger's syndrome / autism a disability?

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no it is not a 'disability'

inb4 curebies..

I agree with sunshower and Danielismyname - AS is by definition a disability.

I think some people here view a disability as some kind of awful taboo - 'oh no I'm not disabled, I'm too happy/successful/talented for that'. To be blunt, this is a silly attitude. It is perfectly possible to be all these things and still have a disability. Having a disability does not preclude you from having a good life - it just means that you need extra help in order to do so, whether it be the right medications, mobility support, assisted accommodation, certain allowances made for you at school and in the workplace, or if you can't work, income from the government. There is nothing intrinsically bad about needing these things. If you don't need things like this, chances are you don't have AS, but rather have some autistic traits (possibly residual).

I guess the word 'disability' has negative social connotations, and others are picking up on this and incorporating it into their views.

And I can understand this. It took me about 18 months from the time I was diagnosed to realise I actually had a disability. This may have been because my psychologist told me, at the diagnosis, that I should not look on AS as a disability for me. But I can't do many necessary things without help. I have massive meltdowns due to overstimulation and stress and confusion, meltdowns where I can't speak and I hurt myself because I lose the ability to communicate in any other way. They occur over everyday things, such as bright lights, conversation, proximity to others, busy places, loud places. I have difficulties with communication, socialisation, practical imagination. I can't juggle a job and self-care, I can't see friends more than once every 4-6 weeks, the list goes on. And of course there are many comorbids, such as depression (incidentally, mille, I hope you are ok. You sounded pretty low in your previous post. I've been like that before a few times - I hope it gets better for you). Do I am disabled - I need assistance in many aspects of life.

But like outlier, I would not be 'cured', because that would mean changing the way I think. I have no problem with being disabled; it's just a thing. Not good or bad.

Uhh... "AS is not a disability" isn't the opposite of "curebie". It's the opposite of "realistic".

Yes. There are people who are not disabled at all by AS. They are the people who cannot be diagnosed with AS. They still count as autistic in my book, since ostensibly they once were diagnosable, and still have the same cognitive style; but they're not officially diagnosable AS.

There are also people who are not significantly disabled by AS. They can get by if they put out more effort than most people, or get minor support from family, such as a husband who does the dishes when his wife can't stand to touch the dishwater. These people wouldn't be eligible for government assistance, but they still have what they call "significant impairment"--making it a diagnosable condition.

And then there are people whose disability is significant--enough to require special education, government assistance, or even some kind of live-in help. They exist. I know; I'm one of them. I don't know what proportion of Asperger's cases fall into that category, but they're quite a few.

You don't have to be in denial about AS being a disability to say you don't want a cure. In fact, not wanting a cure, either wanting no treatment at all or else wanting only treatment (like better meds that help with symptoms but don't change your brain), seems to be an attitude pretty much spread evenly over all levels of disability.

People who say "autism isn't a disability" are people who are trying to go about getting acceptance the wrong way. The public has a horribly bad stereotype of disability; so they think that by somehow convincing them that autism is not a disability, even though it cannot be diagnosed without significant impairment, they'll stop people thinking badly of autism. That's impossible, and it's not realistic. Unless you make a tiny narrow category of disability that includes only people who live worthless lives (i.e., nobody), you can't put autism outside the category of "disability" in the first place. On the other hand, if you say, "disability isn't shameful," suddenly it becomes possible to say, "Hey, wait a minute; autism may be a disability; I may be disabled; but I am not worth any less than anybody else." I am of course aware that there are those for whom autism is not a disability (people who've "lost" their diagnosis, or are part of the broader autism phenotype), or for whom it isn't a significant disability (people who have improved a lot, or started out mild)... And that makes it a true statement to say, "Not all people diagnosed autistic are still impaired," or "the autistic cognitive style does not necessarily correlate with autistic disability."

It's just plain silly to insist autism isn't a disability, though. Of course it is--just to varying degrees.

I look at my last thirty years - despite working my butt off, being right (technically) much more often than I'm not, and enhancing my own skills and abilities more or less continuously - I don't have anything to show for the effort. Except an aspergers diagnosis...

Now, maybe you want to be precious and say I'd reached my natural level or quote the Peter Principle at me, but equally viable is the argument that my life and potential have been stolen from me. Partly by not knowing about the damned condition, partly by the covert conspiracy of my fellow human beings in dismissing me as a misfit.

Looks like a disability to me.

Let me list a few of the ways in which AS has been a disability for me:

- Impaired social interaction.
I have no friends or close interpersonal relationships. I can't seem to keep people around, and I'm confused as hell when I try to do so. I have problems with the expression and regulation of emotion, I misinterpret other peoples' words and actions all the time, and I just can't "get" the nuances of social interaction. This also causes problems with things such as job interviews and the workplace. Thus, I've been underemployed, at a level below my qualifications, as a result.

- Sensory issues.
I have heightened sensitivities to sound, especially. Particular sounds will totally unnerve me and cause me to become completely distracted and panicked. Certain environments, filled with certain sounds, are places I find incredibly difficult to go.

- Narrowly-focused interests.
My obsession is plants. And I think about my plants and work with them as much as possible, to the exclusion of responsibilities of home and family. The people who are in my life end up feeling ignored and neglected.

- Panic/Anxiety attacks and Meltdowns.
Sensory and social issues, left unaddressed, will cause me to panic and meltdown. Depending on when and where this happens, the result can be disastrous. I've lost jobs because I was panicking and having meltdowns at work, and it caused me to be unable to perform the duties of my job. Giant stores, lit with fluorescent lights, create a mild form of anxiety that basically short-circuits my brain, and I have trouble remembering/finding whatever it was I actually came for.

I could keep going, but I think you get the point.
For me, AS is a disability. It prevents me from getting the most out of life. It makes my days harder than they should be. Sure there are interesting things about it... abilities and perceptions that, in certain ways, can exceed those of NT people. But I've been far more hurt than helped by having AS.

Yup. Most of the things people think are really bad about autism tend to be things that are actually really bad about prejudice. If we got a fair deal, I bet there'd be a lot less people out there trying to find a way to abort autistic fetuses.

Actually, this is true of just about any disability. Give them a fair deal, and most of what was bad about being disabled instantly vanishes. The rest tends to be things you can live with.

Mild AS is a gift, not a problem.

ruveyn

My AS has been disabling for me, so it is therefore a disability. If you don't have social or communication problems, how do you even have an ASD?

ASD's can be both a disability and a gift at the same time. It really depends on where you are on the spectrum. Those on the low end most likely see it as a major disability, while those on the high end it is less disabling. It's always a disability to some degree, it's just that that degree varies from case to case.

I think those of us on the high end are often even more likely to see is as a disability because we tend to be more aware of our difficulties and differences than someone very low-functioning.

In what ways do you see AS as a gift? (I'm not suggesting you're wrong, just interested)

Well, I for one am not tempted to follow the crowd, and thanks to my intelligence level in part, I have a more mature viewpoint than many others my age. I also think the fact that my IQ is so high that I was able to learn social skills in an anaylitical sense (as opposed to NT's who have social skills in an intuitive sense), which in turn made my AS more manageable and less obvious to the untrained eye.

I am definitely glad I don't really follow the crowd as well. That has probably saved me from getting involved in a lot of crap other kids my age did in school. I also kind of like how I get engrossed in my interests. But generally I view my AS as more of a problem than anything. I've managed to develop a lot of coping mechanisms and ways of working out social things, but not being able to understand these things intuitively is something that still causes a lot of problems for me. No matter how much I try to learn these things, I still can't seem to put it into practice in social situations. Sensory problems are also a definite problem.

Same here really. I struggled a lot in secondary school, despite being capable of doing much better. This was IMO mainly down to undiagnosed AS. Society doesn't reward intelligence first and foremost.