Do you ever feel that ASD people are protected too much?

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LOL....those were the days of rotary phones...when you can put a "lock" on the phone to prevent anybody from dialing any number. And my parents, did, indeed, put a lock on the phone for a while. My parents got separated soon after; I knew it wasn't my fault.

You're great in art. I can barely do stick-figures. I could probably do an "Abstract Expressionist" Jackson Pollack sort of thing--but I'd screw that one up, too.

I'd be very good at creating manifestoes for artists---but as far as creating the art itself----forget about it....

It depends heavily on the environment of the person in question, usually in combination with their perceived functioning level.

I went to an autism specialist school all the way through secondary. Until I had the confidence to pursue activities and explore the world more, my interactions with NTs, excluding staff and family, were almost exclusively limited to the internet after my NT friends moved away about 2010. Generally most students there wouldn't sit many GCSE level 2 exams. Most seemed to leave with one GCSE, if that even. At least out of the people I knew. So good luck getting into sixth form!

I felt quite bitter about it. Not merely from the feeling of injustice, that we were seemingly being segregated away into a parallel schooling system as a result of our conditions, but I felt strongly as though I was missing out on something beautiful and essential to personal growth in the form of mainstream schooling.

Which is why when I left, I took some AS levels through a distance learning package, and then scraped into a sixth form in another county, using them as an alternative to GCSEs. Didn't have great grades, C, D, E, though I barely revised for them. Seemed to develop problems with anxiety and dropped out after a week or two. But I only did it because I was desperate to experience a more "normal" adolescence, with house parties, and all the clichéd coming of age moments and rites of passage that pop culture had me convinced were almost a given for all mainstream educated teenagers. I don't know if I would've enjoyed it necessarily, I just wanted the opportunity. I wanted to climb the fence. I wanted to be a part of the "real" world. Seems the same is happening with my current course as well. Guess it's Open University or employment next. That's if I can even find a job with my weird set of qualifications and lack of experience.

I can't help but feel as though it would've been completely different had I been mainstream educated. Though I could easily be wrong.