Poll: Diagnosed status and view of AS as a disability

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I've found it interesting as I've been reading arguments about whether or not AS is a disability that whether or not someone is diagnosed or self-diagnosed appears to have a strong correlation to whether or not said person views it as a disability.

My theory is that people with more difficulties are more likely to pursue a diagnosis, and people tend to view based off of their own case.

In my view. An Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis requires an impairment. Said impairment means its a disability.

I'm curious whether this correlation actually exists.

I self-diagnosed and have come around to the disability view (I think impairment=/=disability, though. Disability seems stronger). I do kind of think both are right, though: it's a simple difference in wiring and thus a difference in abilities, but the fact that it's not "normal" means that it becomes a disability because the established world doesn't take it into account.

Well yes, disability doesn't at all mean that there aren't advantages, and doesn't mean that we're lesser. But the same can be said of someone who is blind. They're not less than someone who can see, even though they might have developed other senses better and don't have vision.

I don't think we'd have a disability in an ASD-majority world, but I don't think that means we don't have a disability now.

At the moment it doesn't look like there is any correlation, though I find it interesting how many more people who are diagnosed are voting than self-diagnosed. I actually expected more self-diagnosed people.

I have "other ASD" (autism) and I do believe AS is usually a disability. My thoughts are as such: ASDs are, by the modern definiton/usage of the word, a disability. I do believe in cures or whatnot, but living in the NT world, ASDs (including AS) disabling to some extent.

That being said, there are some people with AS (and perhaps other ASDs as well) who are SO mild that the disorder is not exactly disabling to them in that they can comfortably live in and navigate through the NT world without issues/distress/etc. For those people, they might be a bit quirky, but not necessarily overtly disabled. Most on the spectrum would qualify as disabled to some extent though, I think.

AS is an impairment caused by a difference.

I view the term "disability" through a different lens than most. Before I go too far into this please allow me to say that I am not professionally diagnosed(yet) so my attitude may change if and or when I am. Having said that I genuinly don't think I am disabled because although I know I am different, I have no desire to change. I am quite content with who I am.(As an aside, I think it's a very pervasive NT attitude that anyone who is different from them is somehow broken and in need of repair.) And that's the key differentiator. I am not disabled because I understand I am different, but I am no more capable than anyone else in the things that matter. I can take care of myself, I maintain control of my finances(at least when I am actually making money) and I don't need anyone's assistance to do anything. Are there Aspies who need help in these things? Absoluteley. But fortunately I am not one of them, and IMHO the requirement of assistance is not a pass or fail test for Asperger's Syndrome.

While I don't see AS as a disability, I chose it because it causes many people on the spectrum a significant challenge in keeping employment. Both myself and my fiance have suffered from workplace discrimination because people saw us as different, disturbing, or outright weird. These same people then took steps to harass us and try to make us quit or lose our jobs. So in time it can be disabling.

I have only kept 2 jobs for more than 90 days...EVERY time I was "let go" I was told that it was NOT about job performance, but that so & so and I couldn't get along; or that this & such was threatening to quit unless they let me go....etc. variations on that theme.

YES, Aspergers is a disability to me. (To tell ya' the truth, it feels like GREAT VINDICATION when my SSD hits my bank account every month....I think of all those so & so's or this & such's working hard for my money )

Next time I get employed, I'm not going to tell the employer I have aspergers. I appear normal for the most part, it's just when it comes to communication is where it gets tricky. Most people don't fully understand what aspergers is and get misinformed about it. It's sad really, there should be more awareness

Isnt it that nobody really understands? Including us?

My theory is that Im just having a different reason for e.g. speaking than how NTs interpret it, like I am a stranger in a foreign analysis system, being constantly misunderstood which would mean that Im not disabled but just different, while the analysis system (NT ToM) is rather insufficient for understanding this difference.
If I start listening to a NT conversation I get bored, if a NT starts listening to me he/she gets bored. I think there are at least two different species on this planet.

"Most people"

Much agreement. It's both a difference and a disability.

I do think AS is a disability because we are technically impaired by what is seen as normal. Come on, socializing for most people is natural(innate), for us its not. That's what was so hard for me to learn. And its so hard for people to know that socializing is not intuitive to us.

I believe in the idea of the overall spectrum and that autism is genetic and a maybe different combinations of genes is what forms autism at the varying degree. Its not just NT, then jump to aspergers then autism. Between aspergers and your average NT is more of a gradient. Which people belive is potentially BAP, broader autistic spectrum. They are NTs who have some aspie like traits but much milder and not all the symptoms. Ive have a handful of friends who I believe are BAP. They have it much easier then I do, but they still hold some aspie like traits.

I voted "Self-diagnosed with AS; No AS is only a difference", because in my case I believe it's more an impairment than disability. I agree with the above posters in that it can be much more detrimental than what I experience in my life.

Indeed, although I would consider sensory issues too.

I'm self diagnosed. To me Impairment = Disability. Just as a paraplegic has impaired mobility I have impaired social ability.

I'm self diagnosed. To me Impairment = Disability. Just as a paraplegic has impaired mobility I have impaired social ability.