Would you want Aspergers to be classed a disability?

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League_Girl
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14 Sep 2017, 8:55 am

kraftiekortie wrote:
I don't feel, in the US, that there are very many people who have been approved for SSI solely for having an Asperger's/ASD Level One diagnosis.


I'm on it for that diagnosis but I am on it too for OCD and anxiety. How SSI works is you have to prove how disabled you are, not what diagnosis you have. They go by level of impairment, not by diagnosis. That is what I read in a blog about it by someone who works for the Social Security Administration.


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ToughDiamond
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14 Sep 2017, 5:19 pm

Yes, at least as a legal thing. At one time while I was working, I don't know what I'd have done if AS hadn't been classed as a disability. I'd like it to continue that way because I expect it'll afford a degree of protection to many other ASDers who are in work. I just wish it were better recognised and respected as a disability. From what I've seen and personally experienced, the protective power of ASD as a disability label alone is somewhat limited in workplaces, education, and benefit-acquisition, but it's a start. It's a tricky business because it's a spectrum disorder, it's complicated, and it's "invisible," so it's hard to settle disputes about how much trouble the Big People need to go to in order to get the adjustments right. The most common thing I've seen from them (employers, education staff and benefits staff) is a tendency to tacitly ignore ASD and the legal rights associated with it.

For more social matters such as friendship and family life, I think it depends a lot on who the ASDer associates with. Some are constructive about it, some destructive, and with others the information just seems to go into one ear and out of the other.



leejosepho
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14 Sep 2017, 5:37 pm

drwho222 wrote:
I would, for one main reason. In the US, we could use the threat of lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act to make our lives less unpleasant.

I suspect the threat of a lawsuit would be considered a bluff, and I say that because I suspect virtually nobody making the threat would have the funds to make good on the threat. But aside from that, we have this:

League_Girl wrote:
How SSI works is you have to prove how disabled you are, not what diagnosis you have. They go by level of impairment, not by diagnosis.

That same kind of challenge would come up in court during a lawsuit since a mere diagnosis does not automatically guarantee anything.


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14 Sep 2017, 5:41 pm

Yes, but purely for selfish reasons. A lot of companies have a guaranteed interview scheme for people who have disabilities, which means I can get a guaranteed interview if I apply and them blow them away with my stunning lack of personality hahaha.



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14 Sep 2017, 6:17 pm

That's why there is a 'spectrum', it affects everyone in different ways, whilst keeping to the same theme of social awkwardness, taking things literally, and having a zombie-like personality until someone intervenes early or motivates you to change your ways or get out of your shell.

In the UK, I received the meaning of if I am disabled or not by trying to apply for disability benefits esa and pip (US equiv would be SSI), and true enough scored no points because the criteria asked if I had trouble preparing food, getting out of bed, taking care of oneself, which I undertake on a day-to-day basis more or less, but there was one point that I thought I would get (even though I would have failed the assessment anyway) which was communicating with people and I stated that I have social anxiety and that it's a major barrier to looking for work and staying in work. You can guess the rest.

Seeing the various cuts to welfare spending and recent news about them not counting mental health as a real barrier to working, the government doesn't see it - or the whole umbrella of mental health conditions - as a disability, and frankly neither do i. I realise i'm screwed but I just gotta make the most of what i've got.



CockneyRebel
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14 Sep 2017, 10:15 pm

I'd like it to be classified as a disability, because it is. I'd also like it to be classified as a disability, because there are issues that the majority of us face.


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AspieSingleDad
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14 Sep 2017, 10:19 pm

I thought Autism (which includes high functioning "Asperger's) was already classified as a disability in the United States?



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15 Sep 2017, 5:39 pm

I need for Asperger's/autism to be classed as a a disability. Without that classification, I wouldn't be entitled to any of the accommodations I need/have needed at work and school, which would create major problems for me.


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Kitty4670
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16 Sep 2017, 9:06 pm

I didn't think Aspergers can disable you, what makes you disable?



Chichikov
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16 Sep 2017, 9:38 pm

Kitty4670 wrote:
I didn't think Aspergers can disable you, what makes you disable?

It's classed as a mental disability.



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17 Sep 2017, 6:44 am

Last night I watched the film Mary and Max. If I am not mistaken Max (who had aspergers) disliked the term 'disability' as he saw himself as 'different' and not disabled.

I am a bit torn over the correct term. Although I accept that disability is a physical or mental impairment I don't feel comfortable with the label. In a legal sense, yes I think it should fall under that classification.



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17 Sep 2017, 7:14 am

Hell, yes. Just because I have some exceptional abilities does not mean I'm not disabled socially. If it took me an hour to put my clothes on, I'd get help, but when it takes me all day to figure out what someone meant, there's none. My only productive periods have been when I could focus on what I did well, and trust the people around me to take care of the rest. I don't have a full set of skills, nor the ability to develop them. However, in the right situation, I'm a minor savant, and "disabled aid" groups are never set up with excellence in mind.
Still, Aspies were first defined as defectives who were worth saving from "the" holocaust, because they could be useful.



Last edited by Dear_one on 17 Sep 2017, 7:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

AspieUtah
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17 Sep 2017, 7:16 am

Kitty4670 wrote:
I didn't think Aspergers can disable you, what makes you disable?

The-Art-of-Autism.com wrote:
"Mild autism doesn't mean one experiences autism mildly.... It means YOU experience their autism mildly. You may not know how hard they've had to work to get to the level they are," Adam Walton.

http://the-art-of-autism.com/favorite-q ... aspergers/

I like this quote because it is true in my life. While I can appear quite "mild," few individuals understand what goes into my masking skills. I am frequently overwhelmed with what it takes for me to interact with others, and contain my disabling conditions. I do this for their sake, not mine, as I would prefer to be left alone, anyway. In return, they treat me only as a human version of Siri or Alexa, relegating me to serve as their factoid reminder. My Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2), results bore this out by showing clearly that my total score and two subscale scores were in the severe range.


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17 Sep 2017, 7:35 am

League_Girl wrote:
kraftiekortie wrote:
I don't feel, in the US, that there are very many people who have been approved for SSI solely for having an Asperger's/ASD Level One diagnosis.


I'm on it for that diagnosis but I am on it too for OCD and anxiety. How SSI works is you have to prove how disabled you are, not what diagnosis you have. They go by level of impairment, not by diagnosis. That is what I read in a blog about it by someone who works for the Social Security Administration.


Thank you...

A person can have cerebral palsy, which is a disability, and SSI can deny them. There are people with CP that can hold full time jobs. There are people with ASD that hold down full time jobs, just like people with blindness, bipolar disorder etc.

ASD IS already in the SSA blue book of diagnosis for adults.

https://www.ssa.gov/disability/professi ... .htm#12_10

Where people get cranky is they believe ASD automatically qualifies them for benefits. It doesn't.

If and when you get SSA benefits is based the phase of the moon (that's a joke), luck of the draw of the reviewer, the state you live in, county you live in and luck of the draw of the judge hearing your review. So Buff maybe get SSI/SSDI and he lives in NY. Biff gets denied 3 times and he lives in Michigan. Both have Level I autism, but that's how it is at the moment.

SSA wants you to prove how disabled you are. They have never just handed over cash because you have (x) diagnosis.



Chichikov
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17 Sep 2017, 8:00 am

That's the way it is in the UK too, and so it should be, you should get benefits based on your individual abilities not your diagnosis. Especially for something like AS, it would be very hard indeed to get any benefits in the UK just with an AS diagnosis. There is still some relevance with it being classed as a disability though as it offers you legal protection against disability discrimination. Again if you feel you need that protection.



Dear_one
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17 Sep 2017, 8:12 am

The trouble with institutional aid like this is the conflict of interest on both sides. Once I've claimed a disability, my living depends on not overcoming it, and there are aspects of my life that do fluctuate widely otherwise. On the government side, even a skilled, sincere therapist may be regarded as just another beancounter trying to earn a bonus for cost-cutting. There needs to be some tinkering done with incentives, perhaps by having aid workers compete to do the most good on a given budget, measured independently.