Is asperger necessarily a disability?

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The same rules apply just remove ID, the world is built on capitalism which is Darwinian in nature.

Those who are most able will get the best jobs form the most relationships and earn the most money.

Those who have handicaps like AS are more likely to be unemployed on welfare and living in a bad neighborhood.

They are not going to give up their capitalist system for us.

I think it's a spectrum and it's a spectrum including everyone and people like me are quite similar to geeky NTs. So all it would take would be pathologising of less geeky NTs to see the inclusion of people like me.

I can imagine after covid, society becomes more introverted.

Society has been weird in recent generations & it's not a good thing. Dumbed down, less hobbies, more obsession with consumption & being 'cool'.

The problem is that some higher functioning autistics ONLY have problems because other people think they are odd and threat them badly. Its much more similar to the gay situation than to the people in wheelchair situation. People in the wheelchair cant move on their on. They need a device built by others to move around. Even if all people were nice to them, even if all people understood them, they would still need help from others. Gay people also had more problems than others only because other people didnt understand them and threated them badly. They were on DSM as " disorders" as well, but they fought to not be there anymore, because they wanted to be accepted for who they were. Gays still have much more problems for being gays. They are often bullied, in many countries, they cant marry their boyfriends, they cant have children from their own blood with the people they love. But they arent called disabled because of this.

There are also down syndrome people that have normal IQ. They are still labeled disabled people, but that doesnt make sense, because down people are generaly only disabled because their low IQ. Even if most down people are disabled, that doesnt mean THEY are disabled.

Some of these things listed in some of the above sound very familiar to me .. aswell .

I'm living in not-exactly-capitalist system and largely non-capitalist society... it exists

Guess it might depend on how severely your Autism has affected you ... and how well you cope with those liabilities
Or if a person is able to cope at all . Generally humans are pretty adaptable species as I understand , but society
By itself , can be a serious impediment to ones ability to adapt . So it may very well be considered a serious disability

Yes and yes.

I worked in computers. I looked a lot like those around me. I have good academic and work histories. I got along well with computers and sometimes solved problems those around me could not. What I now know were my Aspie traits lead me to concentrate on the technical part of my jobs rather than trying to climb the managerial ranks--but I was surrounded by lots of other non-managers and I can't believe all of them were auties.
Any "accommodations" I would want for my "disability" would fall under that. Mainly, I wish people had not treated me badly so often.

In the last decade I've decided I want one other "accommodation"--I want doctors to tell me anything nontrivial in writing, not just say it and expect me to remember it. But I had that preference years before I found out I was an Aspie, and at least one primary care practitioner I saw did it for me even though I had not been identified as an Aspie. Frankly, I still don't know whether that was their standard operating procedure or something they did to make me happy.

I only got my autism assessment because I was curious. And while a lawyer might or might not say I am "disabled" I think if I technically am it would be based solely on me having the label ASD-1.

In my case it's a disability. I have trouble making it to the toilet in the #2 department. That would be an obstacle in finding employment. I also have poor social skills. As you can see from my posts, I'm not the most polite or graceful member on WP. I'm very to the point, though I don't mean any harm by being so. I also have anxiety due to my Gender Dysphoria. As handicapped as I might be, I'm still very happy to be alive.

Like carlos55, I also prefer the word handicap/handicapped. It's easier for me to say. It has less syllables than disability.

And these people would be "normal" under the doctor's eye and they won't get diagnosed. Unless they are in a right situation where they needed to be diagnosed like I had to for my school because they were trying to put me in a behavior class. It's a matter of seeing the right doctor as well.

That is still "if pigs had wings they could fly".

If you lack the ability to seem normal in society without extra effort then you are at a disadvantage. So the cause of that disadvantage is a disability. Its a spectrum so the disadvantage/disability becomes slight at the high end. But its still there.

I dont 100 percent disagree. I am optimistic that...as society gets more autism awareness, and as science learns more about autism- its strengths as well as it weakness - that society will become more accomidating to autistics. Some IT companies are already seeking autistic employees.

Thirty years from now, or even ten years from now, society and psychology might be evolved enough so that you could indulge in the luxury of believing that "autism is not a disability". But not now.

I think people in the past before HFA was considered a disability were more accommodating of middle class guys who in this day and age would be considered HFA/disabled.

I think society has gone downhill in terms of its lack of structure.

I wish we could live in a world as distant and formal as the Victorians did but with more lgbt acceptance and more feminism. It doesn't feel right to me to be hugging every afab person I meet - that should be reserved for family and sweethearts.

I also hope for a day, and maybe under lockdown it's arrived, where having hobbies wasn't seen as weird or childish. Not just pure consumption, social media for the young and TV for the old/middle aged, but actual hobbies.

I think it’s a bit of a myth about the Victorian age being tolerant to those with disabilities.

Back then anyone on the spectrum who wasn’t locked up in an institution at a young age where they will be prodded and left to die would have been ignored and labeled an idiot or moron.

One positive thing out of the Covid 19 crisis is the increase in work from home jobs like never before for those that are AS and able.

However the downside will be if you take away the social contact it will decrease our poor social skills even more.

I find my social skills like a very poor muscle, a little bit of prolonged isolation and they start getting really bad and anxiety increases when I have to face people.

Another problem with no social contact is it just highlights other issues that were forgotten about with AS like poor concentration, learning, time stimming and brain fog that can effect ability to sustain a job.

It really depends on the person and any extra comorbidities they may have, which as I've gathered so far are a big factor in determining how disabled they are in day to day life.

Regardless of that though, some here are able to plow through all of it and excel in their fields of interest and/or navigate the world fairly well.

If you've met one autistic you've met one autistic.

I have been formally diagnosed as meeting the criteria for ASD-1 and the evaluation report notes I would've met the older criteria for Asperger's Syndrome. This diagnosis is consistent with my reality; if you got to know me I think you'd see my ASD-1 traits, too.

And I am an example of a mild autistic who did make it through life OK. I was 64 before I had any idea I might be autistic and chose to get an assessment because I was curious. The assessment was only required to satisfy my curiosity. I was already comfortably retired and happily married.

I admit I've been incredibly lucky. Where I landed on the spectrum, plus an upbringing I would now characterize as Autism Acceptance, plus many other lucky breaks all worked together to my advantage.

If youve met one blind person then youve met one blind person.

you're like Stevie Wonder. Lucky. But like blindness its still a disability.

Yes but a more accurate metaphor is Nearsightedness (myopia), some people need spectacles to see the tv or drive, some actually like wearing glasses as they think it makes them look intellectual.

Then you have extreme myopia which can make you disabled blind as a bat needing a white stick & guide dog.

Imagine having to wear spectacles for watching tv and presuming myopia is not a problem doesnt need curing & everyone is on the same disability level as oneself & you have a perfect metaphor for what some ND advocates argue.