What do you think about disability labels?

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How do people with disabilities like Autism, Aspergers, or anything else feel about their label?

Personally, I think social use of the labels are used to classify and divide us.

Human's cant function with out language. Language is by definition labeling things. And I happened to be all for human survival. So I am all for "labels".

But if you have a better idea than using language then...why dont you use language to tell us what this better idea is?

A label has its uses.
When i need to explain my condition, simply saying "a form of autism" is a lot easier than describing all the symptoms, every time again.

Having the label officially also helps me get aid in the area's where i need them, as a lot of help is reserved for those with labels (for good reason: such help is free and it will be overrun if there wasn't some kind of selection at the gate; labels are a logical way to do so).


I do have a problem with people using their label as an excuse for almost anything, and i also think that they are being applied too easily and quickly these days, but that is more a problem with the execution, not with the principle

Being autistic I am into categorizing things and labels are a necessity to do that.

Like most everything else in life, there are good and bad sides to labeling. Whether the good outweighs the bad depends on circumstances.

Labels are a useful shorthand. They can also open doors. For example, there's a local autism charity which offers support, advice and social groups, but only to people with a diagnosis*.



*Which doesn't seem right to me, but there you go.

I believe that identity should ALWAYS be a distant second to personality. Identitarianism only causes bigotry and strife, no matter what end of the political spectrum it's on. To me, there is no difference between radical black nationalists and extreme-right white nationalists. They both think identity comes first and hate anyone who isn't of their skin colour. There are similar, but smaller, movements in every social grouping from sexuality to ability to gender. Labelling should only be incidental or justified by context IMO.

Agreed. I have no objection to our various intellectual, emotional and/or neurological differences being identified, but I strongly object to our identified differences being painted on our foreheads as intellectualism, emotionalism and/or neurologicalism identities.

I've noticed that people with autism and the medical community have a completely different understanding of what autism is, they are operating under completely different paradigms. I'm trying to work on a way to separate the identity from the disability, because even though in the individual the identity cannot be separated from the presence of the disability, conceptually they are completely different things, and identity should not be tied down to the diagnosis of a disability.

I think, when it comes to disability labeling and categorization in the United States, that it is all a front for preparation to repeat history, especially with our very fascist new president.

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture ... ecnum=7019

Disability labels, I didn't even know autism counted as a disability label. Huh, I guess you learn something new everyday. Either way, it helps to explain conditions and stuff. I don't view it as something that holds me back.

The amount of "disability" within people with autism varies greatly----ranging from being wheelchair-bound and unaware of the world to being the head of corporations or even countries.

you impose the assumption of "unaware of the world" superior to theirs... saying "unaware of the world". that's like that whole "animals aren't self aware"

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Last edited by B19 on 16 Feb 2017, 6:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.: unacceptable content/personal attack

No I'm not, Sir.

I understand there are people who seem "unaware" of the world who actually are quite aware.

Case in point: Stephen Hawking.

Yep, stephen hawking is a very good example of brilliant awareness even among catatonics, however, if he wasn't able to communicate in civilized language some way, he would not be considered "aware" because of his disconnect... this is supremacist practice clearly distinguished. Catatonic. Profoundly aware and conscious. Just so happens he gets civilized language, if he were more of a natural human, in his state, he'd be left to vegetate, deemed "unaware of the world" and left reprobate. Lucky for him this isn't the case.