Would you want Aspergers to be classed a disability?

Post Reply New Topic

Luckily, I can just ask my co-workers.

I'm to the point that anything that will work to make them leave us alone I'm for. We lack empathy? That's a laugh. They despise anything different from themselves. We are "Autists" who lack a "theory of mind?" They are ALLists who lack a theory of OTHER minds.

And if this doesn't work, I am in favor of the Muslim option, namely change through shall I say direct action.

Suing a business would bring bad publicity, which would be bad for one that wanted to have a "caring, friendly" image. They would have to fight the lawsuit, which would cost them time and money. Cast them in the media as hateful to the disabled and etc. Let it go viral online. And I don't care if its deserved or not.

Interesting. It has been suggested Hitler himself was on the spectrum.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the religion of native Britons Druidism or something like that?

The UK is a Christian country.

OMG I was under the happy delusion that this insanity of "the free and democratic West is the product of Christians" was confined to the USA. The UK is a Western democracy where you can believe whatever you want. In London it wouldn't surprise me at all if Christians were a minority and "True Believers" or Fundamentalists next to non existent.

Ah, guess Brexit passing should have told me something. You wouldn't happen to live in rural England, Wales, or Cornwall hmmmmmm?

Go troll someone else.

I have been surviving on Social Security Disability since 2007, based exclusively on a diagnosis of Asperger's Disorder. So it is considered a disability. That said, I had to pass the age of 50 to qualify for benefits, because of the various classifications involved. Apparently, it was determined that because my Autism had adversely affected my ability to maintain steady employment my entire life, AND because I had reached an age beyond which job opportunities were far less likely to be available in general, yada, yada, yada...

However, don't get your hopes up about the Americans with Disabilities Act being of any assistance whatsoever, because it's not. Case in point:

By the turn of the century, my career in broadcasting began to run off the rails, as much due to changes in technology as anything else - the vast majority of local stations having been acquired by huge corporate interests, who largely automated with PCs, eliminating thousands of disc jockey jobs across the country. The few positions left required a degree of social skill and office politics unnecessary in the days when a DJ's job was all done in a closed studio. A career that had paid bare survival wages for decades, became a final dead end for an autistic loner.

Having been a fairly competent, though hackneyed, artist all my life, I decided tattooing was something I had enough interest in to pursue and set about trying to get licensed. At first, I had to settle for commuting across the border to another state to get licensed, as the costs in my home state were prohibitive. Eventually, regulations changed and just as I was applying for SS Disability, I was able to get a grant from a state Rehabilitation agency to go through the licensing process in my own state.

The shop I apprenticed in (for a license I already had, mind you) was owned by a greedy little troll couple, who wanted every artist in the place to rush to the door, follow customers around, push ideas on them, and sell them a tattoo, like a hustling used-car salesman. Needless to say, that is the antithesis of autistic behavior, and as a result they did not like me (though my repeat customers did), because I was not an aggressive enough salesman. It was explained to them repeatedly that this was due to my disability, which was why they were getting paid to license me in the first place, but they insisted that I was "just shy," and they could "fix" me.

In the end, after completing the entire licensing program, during which they documented my work as satisfactory, they refused to schedule my final test before a Health Department inspector, specifically because of my disability. When I complained to both the state Rehabilitation Agency and to every other state and federal agency involved, the response I got from EVERY ONE OF THEM was: "Well, yes, you certainly were discriminated against, no doubt about that - but that's not MY department. Why don't you try so-and-so down the hall..."

I phoned, I met with, and I emailed, bureaucrats from agencies with names like "Disability Rights Commission" for FOUR YEARS before I finally threw up my hands in disgust and gave up. No one made any serious effort to help right my grievance. If you needed a wheelchair ramp built, oh, they were only too ready to help with that, but they had no clue what to do with a disability like autism, so they did nothing.

So if your hope is (and it seems to be) that the law is ever going to help with being bullied, ignored or otherwise sidelined because of your autistic handicaps, don't hold your breath.

Last edited by will@rd on 19 Sep 2017, 5:49 pm, edited 4 times in total.

It has been for years already. Asperger's is no longer used, DSM-5 changes relegated it into the category of autism spectrum disorder. ASD is considered a substantial disability.

If you are honest about your impairments and take the doctor's question literally when they ask you how are you and also if you have all documents of your disability and school stuff that will make it easier for you to get approved, also having everyone around you write them letters about how impaired you are, co workers, your boss, your doctor, your family. If you even remember all your doctors names you have seen over the years, give them that information too because they should have you in their record.

The poor social skills, the executive functioning, the sensory issues, the need for routine, restrictive interests, all that can impair you if it's that severe and you can't control it and can't function.

I think this is along the lines of what I was thinking.

So in the UK do they only focus on your diagnoses than on your impairments? That would suck if that is true. I can totally see some doctors purposely giving someone the wrong level of diagnoses just so they can get the help they need to help function in life. Unless they have another disorder than impairs their functioning? Then they still qualify for support?

As long as we can walk and talk then we're good to go.

So I take it that as they only care for the psychical impairment but not for the mental impairment. So if someone has early onset Alzheimer's they would still be good to go because they can still walk and talk but yet they can't function at work anymore or in their daily life because of their brain keeps on slipping in and out of it. That is how it starts out when it begins. But even my grandmother with it could still walk and talk and she didn't even have her memory and couldn't carry on a conversation nor knew where she was or who her family is or who she even is before passing away. She even needed bathroom assistance. Hey even if a severely autistic person could talk and walk they are still good to go.