Aspergers vs being in a wheelchair!

Post Reply New Topic

How does aspergers limit what can you do in respect to the same limitations someone in a wheelchair would face in day to day life?

Try to go a day in a wheelchair. Try to go to the store, try to do anything in a wheelchair.

Then get back to us.

I am just saying that people compare aspergers to being in a wheelchair.

Trust me, I'd rather be the way I am right now, than be confined to a wheelchair. Aspergers may be a pain in the ass, but at least I can do simple things like climb stairs without assistance. I would hate to have to be reliant on other people for things like that.

I guess there are times when one might feel emotionally hamstrung--like people are physically hamstrung in wheelchairs.

All in all, though, it's much better to be able to get around when you want, how you want, even amid the difficulties experienced with Asperger's.

If I was given a choice between having Asperger's, with the ability to get around without pain--or being a full-fledged NT in a wheelchair, I'd pick Asperger's, hands down. At least, with Asperger's, you are able, at times, to improve your lot. When a person is in a wheelchair, it's virtually impossible to improve your lot physically. You're stuck there.

This is not to imply that people in wheelchairs are in a hopeless situation. They're most definitely not.

But their physical limitations limit their freedom to get around without help.

I don't think you can compare those two things because they're both very different experiences.

Why do some people compare AS and being in a wheelchair though?

My brother said to me a few times "you might as well be in a wheelchair"

I agree with this 100%, and I don't normally post 'me too' posts. There are many different conditions that can necessitate the use of a wheelchair- either temporary or indefinitely. Several WP members are dependent on some form of wheeled transportation to go from point A to point B. These are things that may overlap.

You can flip that argument around with the mention that the person in the wheelchair can socialize and have enjoyable relationships his entire life and still be able to do those 'simple things' you mention despite being in a wheelchair.

Different conditions (also, there's a million reasons to need a wheelchair).

Though I'll say that an ASD would be more disabling across the board compared to "just" having no use of your legs.

Being on the artistic spectrum is an invisible disability that is why we get so little understanding.

All my posts on this board has been about me exploring and coming to terms that I have a disability that for most of my life I did not understand.


But a choice between this or being blind or a quadriplegia or even living in a third world country and I will say I will stick with what I have Thank You Very Much.


Better the Devil you know.

Or an elevator.

Just 'cause you don't think you'd like it, doesn't mean it's not totally normal for people who've used a wheelchair for their whole lives, or for years. They learn how to work around not being able to walk. And simple accommodations can make life much easier for them--such as requiring public buildings to either have one main story (like a grocery store does) or to have elevators (like in a courthouse). Besides, elevators help everybody--how often have you used one because you were holding a mug of coffee, or because you were carrying something heavy, or because it was six stories up? They work around their disability with technology and creativity.

Which is a lot like what we do; we learn to work around sensory overload and crappy social skills and getting stuck on one thing. We even use technology, like how we're talking now by way of Internet forum.

I don't think it is very easy to compare the two situations. Rather than one being better or worse than the other, they are simply different. An Aspie wouldn't have trouble with stairs (except on a clumsy day or when around bullies who like to push us down them), and someone with, say, a spinal cord injury, wouldn't have problems with being oblivious to others' social signals (except for the social distance that comes from people being awkward around someone in a wheelchair).

They are both disabilities, and in that they have a lot of things in common, mostly when it comes to accommodations, treatment in society, others' opinions of what our lives must be like, etc. For example, notice how you immediately decided that being "confined to a wheelchair" would be really horrible? That's something you learned from the culture we all live in, and it's an assumption that people in wheelchairs have to deal with when others assume they must hate their lives. Similarly, we have to deal with the idea that we as autistic people are tragic and isolated and not capable of love or compassion.

I don't think it helps anyone very much by trying to compare to see who has it better or worse; I would rather recognize that we have similar experiences, because we share the experience of being disabled, and are natural allies.

Some points of comparison:

- people in wheelchairs are quite obviously disabled and will not be expected to do things their disability prevents them from doing
- shops and businesses have legal obligations to be accessible to physically disabled people (obviously they are not always successful) - they have no such obligation towards autistic people. The same is true of concerts and sporting events, which will provide special viewing areas for people in wheelchairs but not for autistic people.

I think the most difficult thing for the severely physically disabled is home life, things like getting dressed, getting out of bed, cooking... which can also be very difficult for autistic people in other ways.

It's not a competition and the comparison is fairly useless (unlike, say, comparisons between related conditions) but I think it raises some genuinely interesting questions.

it isnt quite always opposites.
although am not aspergan,am severely classic autistic and use a wheelchair as a direct result of it, because of collapsing to the floor from frustration,noise or sensory and information overload and head butting the floor over and over, hitting out,throwing things etc,am also severely mobility impaired by constant overload,it doesnt help that am sporting a spinal nerve injury as well.

the wheelchair is very useful for self and for staff to have it there as it means am not dropping to the floor and injuring self or others so easily,they arent breaking manual handling/health and safety rules by having to pick self up off the ground and breaking their backs,plus theyre able to get us out of the situation before it becomes a bigger incident, used to live with other severely and profoundly autistic people who used wheelchairs to offset the effects of their autism and severe challenging behavior to.

in terms of wheelchair use have gone to many places where they werent accessible despite being the most accomodated impairment barrier under the DDA law so we have had to go home or somewhere else,but non disabled people are probably the biggest piss take as they fill up disabled parking bays and make access even more difficult.

please dont assume being a wheelchair user means we are automaticaly able to use places,being accomodated doesnt mean its suitable accomodation they just do the minimum to keep themselves out of the courts; for example am a cinema goer and use the wheelchair seating area but in most screen rooms have been in its right at the front where have got to lean head right back to see anything and its impossible to do that for long without severe pain and chronic stiffness,theres no possibility of getting up the stairs to better seats because of the continuous sensory overload from the cinema even when films/trailers havent started.

another example,most businesses have personaly had to use have unsuitable ramps; theyre to upward if that makes sense, and it makes it especialy difficult for those of us who have to be pushed by carers or for manual wheel chair users to push themselves,some ramps have multiple turns and dont give enough space in the corners for turning, another example is with in shops;especialy ones like sports direct [UKers who have been in there will know what am on about] that squash in as many isles and racks as possible making it impossible to get in without moving racks out the way or knocking things over, people in those shops dont give a sht either they just stand in front of wheelchair users doing their thing not caring that we want to get past,making a mess as they go so we often end up having to pick up their mess to be able to move on.

also,just because am a wheelchair user doesnt mean people automaticaly see the disability,am never recognised for the physical side of it am recognised for being autistic and ID, have never been called a cripple by chavs in the community but am regulary called a 'ret*d' and spoken down to patronisingly by people who think theyre doing something good.

Well those are two entirely different things so not sure what you mean by in respect to the same limitations someone in a wheelchair faces as its different sorts of limitations. But autism interferes with social interaction and ability to communicate, also comes with things like sensory issues where sensory imput people would find a tiny bit annoying at worse, is actually painful to the person with autism...so if ending up in an environment with too much sensory stimuli can cause sort of a mental shut down and seems there are some issues with processing things which can make it harder to handle stress.

Its a little harder to define what limitations autism can cause and how exactly it looks, than it is when it comes to people in wheelchairs. Obviously someone in a wheelchair has the issue of limited mobility, though there are a number of things that can cause that so there is lots of variation in why someone might have to use a wheelchair. But I don't think people in wheelchairs or with autism are in a competition as to which is better or worse.....

I guarantee there are autistic people who use wheelchairs to.

I know A guy who is a paraplegic (whist down), in a wheel chair and needs 24hr nurse care. He is very successful and has a very good paying job. So you might be thinking that being in a wheel chair isn't so bad, right? But when I found out that he needs that nurse to shove an anal-probe up his a$$ so he can take a $h!t. Ya! That kinda changes everything. So ya! I think I will keep my asperger's, thank you.