At 4' 11 and 83 pounds, I fall in the bottom 3rd percentile for my age group as far as height and weight. I am literally in the 50th percentile for the stature of an 11-year-old girl. This makes it very difficult to not only buy clothes that fit -- (I live pretty much entirely in overalls because it's so freaking hard to find pants that fit in the leg and the waist at the same time, so holding up my pants with straps is just easier), -- but also to do things independently like grocery shopping, aspects of my job which require me to reach high places, things which require an average adult amount of weight to shift or make work, like changing a tire or bringing heavy packages into the house from the front stoop, etc.
The point of this analogy is to demonstrate that being different has its challenges, and it will always be a challenge for as long as it's considered a difference and not the mainstream. The world is not physically designed to be easily accessible to a child, in the same way that it's not physically, socially or emotionally designed to be easily accessible to an autistic and others with different neurological disabilities. If we lived on a planet in which we were the majority, our needs would be met as easily as the needs of NTs are met here on earth, just as, on a planet where 4'11 and 83 pounds was average height and weight for an adult, things would be low enough to reach, and light enough to manipulate.
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"Survival is insufficient" - Seven of Nine
Diagnosed with ASD level 1 on the 10th of April, 2014
Rediagnosed with ASD level 2 on the 4th of May, 2019
Thanks to Olympiadis for my fantastic avatar!