[Poll] Is Aspergers 'Special Needs'?

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I clicked no because purely aspergers is under the umbrella of an autistic spectrum disorder which it is something to do with how how brain functions we just finds things a little hard in our 3 main areas of communication, imagination and social interaction. I like to see autism or aspergers as a gift we have.

you can develop learning disabilities with it though like i have thats why i am only basic at english and maths even though i am forgetting how to add pennies up.

No. I think moderate-severe autism is 'special needs'; these people seriously can't function in day-to-day life. I think aspergers is mild enough that it should be up to the individual to sort it out for themselves.

If you want to learn social skills, buy a book on it and practice. It will be hard, but unless you sort it out, things aren't going to get any easier. I don't think it is constructive to expect special treatment for the rest of your life.

Perhaps there may be legislation that entitles you to 'special needs' in school, college, work etc, but what about relationships and friendship? There is no law stating that people must like you or love you despite your lack of social skills. My feeling is, if you rely on people making exceptions for you all the time, you will never progress and develop as a person.

That's my own personal view. I do realise that I am basing my views on myself and the aspies I have met, some who may be milder than some people here, and quite frankly are capeable of making an effort if they wanted to (even myself, I won't lie).

I guess you could argue that the cut-off between moderate and mild autism/aspergers can be quite fine, but I don't think people with AS should automatically get 'special needs' just by virtue of their label.

(by the way, I think 'special' and 'different' are pretty much the same in this case)

A lot of the time, it is... I think of it usually if the person needs extra services to help them with school, careers, and getting through life. But we all tailor our lives to suit what's best for us, so in a way, doesn't everyone have special needs?

Low functioning ones need special help, because they don't know even how to dress up or how to buy sth in the shop.

High functioning ones need special help too, but in advanced level - how to talk, why people do sth, how works Human-logic...
But everybody has their own special needs - one can't understand Math, another can't write correctly, another doesn't understand people.

I learned in normal school, teachers thought me as unsociable and odd, but special needs child? No way! I was one of the best students, so how could I be special, disabled? Kids called me mad, abnormal or acoustic child (sounds similar to autistic), teachers told they were just jealous, but already now I think You were right!
Special needs stricte is for low functionings, because they don't know how to live. Highs need only guide in NT-world and shouldn't be in one category with lows.

I have needs that are special

I think you've got some definitions wrong... I know the difference between someone with just-barely-diagnosable AS and someone who needs 24 hour care is a very big difference, but "special needs" is not just for people who need a LOT of help. It's also for people who need a little. Like, y'know, every single Aspie on the planet. (Wouldn't be diagnosable if you didn't. If you can learn social skills on your own and pretty much keep up with other people doing it, then that's not AS proper; it's broader-autistic-phenotype, which works well enough if you want to identify as socially/culturally autistic, but not so much if your doctor's got to identify significant impairment for diagnosis.)

I think it's absolutely invalidating every time somebody comes on here and says, "Hey, Aspies aren't disabled! We don't need help! We can do it on our own; just try harder!" I'm getting that message from every corner and I'm tired of getting it here, too. Fact is, we are "special needs", many of us to the point that we can't live on our own.

Yes, we are in the same category with the people they call "low-functioning autistic", and frankly, I'm proud to be. The diversity of the autism spectrum is fascinating and beautiful. You simply cannot think about what autism means without including the people that don't have whatever kind of autism you consider glamorous. You can't think about it without including disability, "special needs", and the related issues. If you want to recognize autism as a part of yourself, you'd better think about autism in general--the whole spectrum, the reality of it, and not just the delusion of superiority that comes with thinking, "But I'm an Aspie! I'm intelligent! I'm not disabled! I'm not one of them!" Sorry, doesn't work like that. Either we acknowledge the whole spectrum, or we live in little fantasy worlds in the clouds where we're perfect and everybody else is Not Like Us.

If it's not, I don't know what is then.

Just because you have an IQ of a zillion, this doesn't mean you can make food for yourself. I can't make food for myself, as it's way too many steps to go through, and all it does is lead to being overwhelmed, which leads on to losing the ability to do the things I can do.