Aspergers

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Is Aspergers a disability?

it surely can be. I don't buy the proposition, hype and promotions that: "its a gift".

I would imagine the lack of replies to your post says something about how contentious this subject can be...

My 2 cents would be that it is personal and contextual. I wouldn't describe myself as disabled, but would say I am unable to engage socially as well as most people, but am enabled to think and see things in ways that many of those people can't too. I can also respect that a lot of people do see it as a disability.

Being short can be a disability if you are an actor but Tom Cruise has done better than most.
Everyone agrees that Tom is short.

Yes and no.

Like blindness aspergers is absolutely a disability.

But as with blindness that doesnt that some folks cant do well for themselves despite (or even in some sense because, of it). Despite (and maybe in part because blindness forced them to focus on music), Jose Feliciano, Ray Charles, and Stevie Wonder all were rather successful- at least in public- despite being blind. But that doesnt change the fact that blindness is a disability.

I'd say being short is much more of an disadvantage for a man in real life than for an actor on screen.

The medical profession recognises it as a disability, which is good, otherwise we would all be a lot worse off than we are at present. Saying that though, it is your personal choice as to whether you see it as a disability or not. Some people debate whether there should be a rewording of the term disability, in regards to autism.

I think so. If someone doesn't see their autism as a disability, that's fine. But to make a blanket statement that autism isn't a disability across the board is very harmful.

You may be able to make the case that level 1 autism/Aspergers isn't a disability depending on severity of traits. But as for me.... I absolutely see my autism as a disability. It makes my work life much harder, and I even get triggered in my own controlled home environment.

Absolutely YES

It is in my case. I think I might my one of the lower functioning members here. That doesn't bother me. We can't all be quick and snappy.

I believe it is. It is a gift in the sense that we’re able to see things in a different persoective than NTs, but sensory issues combined with PDA, lack of executive fynction and social difficulty is absolutely a disability to me, making my life harder than i wish it would be.

I want to wear a pair of jeans and look cool, but i feel strangled the moment i put them on and have to get rid if them

I also want to have friends, but maintaining such relationships sucks too much energy out of me.

I’d like to keep my teeth clean and healthy, but due to executive dysfuntion i can’t bring myself to do it, cause huge dentist bills.

I could go on…

Yes it is, primarily, but plunge a group of people into pitch darkness and the blind one, being the most accustomed to coping without sight, may suddenly become the most able of them all. The matter isn't absolute, it's relative. It's an extreme and unlikely example, but it does illustrate that even an apparently clear-cut disability can be an asset under the right circumstances. With something like ASD, the disability isn't quite so clear-cut as blindness is, so its so-called superpowers are a tad more likely to come into their own, though it clearly doesn't pan out that way in every case.

Personally I'm happy to keep my ASD because in my case I think it's been worth having. So I wouldn't take a permanent cure, though a reversible one appeals to my childlike curiosity (another likely ASD trait that I suppose otherwise ought to be on the wane by now), and my critical thinking skills inform me that although I feel pretty sure my ASD is overall an asset, I can't be certain, so I'd be willing to subject my views to a safe and reversible test. Now if I could reversibly tinker with the individual traits, I'd be onto it like a shot.

I don't claim that ASD is always more baby than bathwater. So much depends on the profile of traits the individual has, and on the aspects of their environment, in as far as they're stuck with them, particularly the attitudes of the people in their lives. Perhaps one answer to the question "is ASD a disability or not?" is to look at the WP polls that ask people whether they'd take a cure or not, and of course we see that the result isn't 100% yes or no. For example, this one:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=291702

Seems to be saying that the majority would rather keep their ASD, though some of the posts in that thread make me think the question wasn't refined enough to give a definitive answer. Still, 60% no-cure responses suggests that we don't all feel our ASD as a pure disability, and I can't think of a better way of judging the matter than to ask those who have the condition whether or not they'd rather keep it.

All of which would seem to support my original answer to this thread's question - "yes and no."

I consider disability to be any lifelong condition that adversely affects your ability to function.

Aspergers/high functioning autism/ level 1 autism may not cause problems 24/7 but it's still there, it still affects our ability to function. It means we may need supports to help us do things like engaging in the community or finding work.

It also means, we deserve the rights of disabled people that protect us against abuse and mistreatment.

Legally speaking, I am disabled.

Asperger is a disadvantage because the majority is non-autistic neurotypicals and that is viewed as the proper way to be. If the majority was autistic I doubt being a neurotypical non-autistic would give someone an advantage. I think the non-autistic neurotypical person would be seen as a weird person focusing on the wrong things and talking a lot of BS. What would happen if you did an experiment and compared two societies against each others - one with only non-autistic neurotypicals and one with only autistics - to see which one was better functioning and did best?

Being a minority is usually a disadvantage.

I do believe if we were not outliers with thinking and sensory sensitivities our lives would be much easier.

OTOH I can not envision any environment where executive dysfunction is not an impairment.