What is autism to you: disability or difference?

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Both.

Not all differences are disabilities; but all disabilities are differences.

Having a disability does change your life--sometimes only a little; sometimes profoundly. Autism is a disability that affects your brain, and that means it affects your personality and identity to a greater degree than many disabilities do.

To me, autism is foundational to who I am. Without it, there'd be nothing but a neurotypical stranger. So I treasure my autism like any other aspect of myself.

Disability is not automatically a negative thing, however self-evidently bad the world seems to think it is. They seem to assume that a disabled person is just like a non-disabled one, only with some impairment; but that's not so. A blind person is not the same thing as a blindfolded seeing person; similarly, the experience of autism for an autistic person is not the same thing as the experience of autism would be for someone used to being NT. To an NT, being autistic seems scary and foreign; but for me, it is my everyday, normal life. If an NT assumes that it must be scary and foreign to me because that's what it seems like to them, then they come to the incorrect conclusion that my life is way worse than theirs. It's not. It's just my life--different but not inferior.

Well said, Callista.

I wanted to write something very similar to this, and I'll add that the statements that AS is not a disability makes it harder for me to relate to a lot of people here. Also, everything Callista said.

I don't really hold it against them, though. I am only really annoyed at the people that insist it's not a disability for anyone.

I don't really buy the argument that it's not really a disability because in an ideal society we'd be fully accommodated. Since we don't live in one of those, it's not really relevant (although it is nice to think about). This doesn't annoy me, I just disagree.

Both. But it can be thought of as "differently abled" in a tolerant, liberal society

I feel more like it's a gift with its costs.

Actually the view that in an ideal society we would be accommodated makes me think it is disability, not that it isn't. Disability always involves an interaction between body, environment, and society. The idea that societal inaccessibility or impression makes something NOT disability is alien to me.

Both because til a few years ago I didn't have a diagnosis or a name for what I was, what I am. I knew I was different but not why which made things difficult.
I voted both because while it is a difference as I knew all along it is also a disability.
Being different is not the same as being disabled.
Growing up thought of myself as different but otherwise 'normal'. I did not think that I was disabled. I thought I was 'normal', difference than the other kids but still within 'normal' range was how I saw myself.
As I got older things got harder and my goal in life for some years was to answer the question 'what's wrong with me!' And the idea that I could be disabled in some way rather than just different started coming up.

As a kid people were always looking out for me, as I got older I was expected to look after myself which at 26 years I'm still working on being able to dress, feed and keep myself clean without having to be told(as well as doing homework and looking for a job).

Example:
Playing by the back fence by myself all alone and happy as a kid could be because I'm very imaginative and don't need other people to be entertained. That's a way I'm different than the kids that played in groups and had to be with at least one other person at recess.(I was really like this as a kid though I did play with my one friend and sometimes one other kid often role playing with toys - often animal toys).

Example:
Breaking down crying in frustration over which shirt to wear after going over every pro and con I can think of falls under disability I say.(This exact thing hasn't happened that I recall but I'm bad at remembering exact situations when asked for examples of my problems. I have gotten better at not breaking down completely over little things to this degree I'm still terrible at making, what should be, simple decisions many times. This doesn't apply nearly as much to decisions I'm sure about and less so things that are routine - then I just put it off til 'later' which comes way too soon most days).

In short, I believe (as I always have) that I am different (than any other person on the planet[ie. there is no normal]) and I am disabled.

But that's me others will have their own opinions.

It's both for me.

It's both, but I think that only the individual traits of AS can be considered disordered rather than the whole thing. It all depends on the context of how each affects the person and their well-being.

For example: one person may want friends but struggle with the social context of situations, where another person with the same diagnosis will have no trouble with social context but have immense trouble with adjusting to routines and is unable to hold down a job. And another person is good at both social context and routines...but hides it all to show people she is capable, and ends up with anxiety and depression tryin to cope. Although all of these things are attributed to AS, the disabling aspect affects people in completely different contexts. I feel that the mistake people make is that they attribute all of their AS as faulty, when they will only have significant difficulties with a few things.

It's definitely both.

90% Disability
10% Difference

100% living nightmare! That's not trying to be offensive but I think if I were a typical white male with AS I probably would be having an easier time than being the mixed Asian female that I am. I get more noticed because of my race and looks and thus my autistic behaviors are going to be seen and judged more than others. I've reached the point in my life where I'm terrified of going out and my worst dreams at night (some I do wake up in sweats from) are having random run-ins with typically good people. I wish I wasn't kidding.

I see it as both. It might not feel disabling for everybody, I don't know. I think it is a disability for us if we personally feel disabled by it and I do.

In my case, and I don't know if this is true for anybody else, I think the most disabling part has been the additional mental health problems that are secondary to my autism. I don't really wonder what I would be like without AS and I wouldn't want to be without it now. But I do wonder what I might be like just with AS but without depression, selective mutism, anxiety particularly social anxiety and very severe social inhibition. At times these additional problems might have protected me from making awful social mistakes, which I hopefully would have learned from. I do feel that these secondary problems have held me back and made it just too difficult for me to be able to learn and practise social skills. They have prevented me from being able to go out there and gain important social experience and life experience and so have disabled me more than just autism on its own might have done.

It's only a disability when interacting with NT's.