What is everyone's problem with the ASD Level System?

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I don't understand whta peoples' probelm with the leveling system is.
The leveling system for those of you who don't know is
Level 1 (“Requiring support”)
Level 2 (“Requiring substantial support”)
Level 3 (“Requiring very substantial support”
I don't understand why everyone get's so offended by it considering it's A. Useful. B. The idea comes from autistic.
All it says is what level of support you require. I don't understand why people hate it. It seems it's mostly Level 1s who hate it. I find it useful because it gives people and idea of the severity of your autism instead of just saying EVERYONE who has this disorder that varies wildly in terms of presentation and severity just is the same level and severity. Which makes no sense. What is your opinion on them?

"Everyone's Problem" with it?

Maybe everyone except me as I wasn't aware there was a problem.

But then again, with my health the mess it is with autoimmune and mitochondrial disease and all, there is a whole bunch of stuff going on in society which I turn out to not have been aware of.

there's is a significant amount of people in the autistic community who scold me for identifying as a level 2. I dont' mean everyone I'm just overexaggerating.

I never had a problem with that because I don't pay much attention to classifications. I've seen excellent descriptions of the range of human personalities based on four types, and also on nine types. I notice that diagnosticians go from useful to dangerous if someone happens to fit into more than one category, or into none that are available.

I don't have a problem with it. Autism is too broad to just have one blanket word for it. It's easier to have high-functioning, moderate-functioning and low-functioning labels, or if that's too inaccurate for some people, mild, moderate and severe.

Mild is where a person needs little to no support in their daily functioning, and are usually articulate and can mask well

Moderate is both mild and severe (one can function well in some things but be clueless or need lots of support in other things)

Severe is usually where a person is severely affected by their autism and it's obvious they have autism just by looking at them (usually they're non-verbal or can't communicate articulately and need lots of support, some even live in care homes)


It's obvious really. My friend is autistic and I'd say he's moderate. He lives on his own (with the help and support of social services), can get a bus on his own to attend his MENCAP group, but gets financial support because he can't really hold down a job, and he often stims in public like flaps his hands and hums.

So while autism functioning levels are not black or white, they still exist.

I was unaware there was a level system. This may be because I was diagnosed very recently and am still waiting for my report to be sent to me - perhaps it will mention which level I am at.

I expect I will be Level 1. I do not see any issues with it. I categorise everything though, so it helps to know there are categories for this rather than just one word for everything.
In my opinion, a lot of Autism activists are way too general with the Autism label and as I said, I categorise everything which is probably because I have Autism - so a Level system makes sense to me!

I haven't really thought about this before because I do not use this leveling system. If I have a problem with it, I would say that it left a few levels out.

Level 0 ("Someone who can manage living their lives without any additional support.")
Level -1 ("Someone who accepts their flaws, learned to live with their flaws, understands their unique strengths, and learns to utilize these strengths to go where no man has gone before.)

The main problem is few outside the autism world knows anything about ASD 123.

This causes everyday problems like the case a few weeks ago of the autistic kid who was refused to board a plane without a mask.

The flight attendant was told the kid had autism and her response was basically so what autism is not a disability, maybe she had been watching too many Young Sheldon shows but the end result was the same.

Peoples needs are not being met because there is no simple way of explaining things to ordinary NTs.

On a separate note I assume other objections come from advocates that don’t like functioning labels, ironically they tend to be the same people who always talk about accommodations.

Accommodations without functioning labels so no one knows what those accommodations might be needed

Neither simple nor complex explanations are enough to convince some people that the earth is round. Our subtleties are quite invisible to many, and will remain so. Quite a few will assume that since they would have to be faking to act like us, we must be faking it ourselves.

Interesting question.

I actually have not noticed folks being upset about the new recent "three level system".

But you CONSTANTANTLY see folks on this site cry and gripe about the terms "high functioning" and "low functioning". Not official labels, but used constantly to describe folks on the expanded "autism spectrum".

Level one basically means the same thing as "high functioning", two (middle functioning), and three (low functioning).

So its as if folks hate the term "six", but are okay with the term "half of a dozen". Go figure.

And actually in all fairness maybe breaking down into three "levels" is a subtely better way to state the same thing. More streamlined in description. Even if they are equally vague terms.

I don't see them as a bad thing. But I'm not a level one person either. I'm level two as well.

If it is level 1 folks complaining, I wonder if it's because level one sort of implies no major issues and if that person has things they struggle with, maybe they feel invalidated or something. I dunno. I'm just guessing here. But if I was level one, and people dismissed my issues or tried to downplay them or told me to suck it up or whatever because of that label, I'd be annoyed about it. Level one doesn't mean no issues at all, and I bet there are people out there who would think that is what it means. But again, I'm only guessing.

I find it odd that people have scolded you for identifying as level two. That makes no sense to me at all. If that's where you fall in this, that's where you are. Why scold you for a fact? That's weird to me.

I'm not upset about the 'three level system' but I'm uncertain where I fit on it.How much should or shouldn't my additional schizophrenia diagnosis be taken into account when assessing how well I function?

The ADOS didn't help matters. I was given an Asperger's diagnosis but whereas social interaction was Asperger's level,social communication was classical autism level. That surely different from someone who gets Asperger's level for both.

Then there's the issue of judging how much help I get and what constitutes support/substantial support/very substantial support.

I’ve lived on my own since my wife died in 2005. Without support it was a slow descent into self neglect. My stepdaughter did what she could when she visited every 6 months or so.

She tried time and time again to get me to move near her,but my fear of change kicked in. It took a greater fear,that of news my tower block was going to be knocked down to,rather anxiously, agree to move.

My s/dau did everything to make things go smoothly .Help was put in place to keep my flat clean. She comes with me to doctor’s appointments. Is informed about anything happening health wise and with the housing association. Pre my back being bad,and pre Covid, she took me shopping. Nowadays I send her a list, and she does the shopping for me. Generally her or my granddaughters do the practical things that I really struggle with.

She’s currently doing all she can to get me moved to a more suitable place, after the falls I had.

Sooner rather than later I will give her power of attorney.

Well said.

Is Aperger's syndrome level 1 or level 2 or both?

Level 1 (“Ignore their needs”)
Level 2 (“Provide inconstant and unreliable support”)
Level 3 (“Remove their agency and never listen to them”)

I'm not saying people on the mild end of the spectrum don't need support or shouldn't deserve support, but they are the least affected on the spectrum. The reason we don't often get much support is because of lack of funding and government finances, which is why a lot of us mildly affected Aspies have to exaggerate our symptoms to get any support these days. But really, we shouldn't have to exaggerate our symptoms. So anyone here who is mild but gets support by exaggerating their symptoms on the application form aren't cheating the system, it's just that the government only believes that if one can walk, talk, drive, dress themselves, etc, then they are capable of working and don't need any support.

On the other hand, I receive no support, because I feel I don't really need it. The only time I'm going to need some support is if I was out of work or not earning enough money to keep my head above water. All I'll need is an advisor or someone to help me keep on track of looking for work, maybe find jobs for me, although I am capable of doing it myself I still find it daunting and struggle to keep myself on track due to ADHD. But according to the government, stress, anxiety, depression and ADHD are "no excuse" and so they aren't going to be sensitive when it comes to emotional states. According to the government only people with no legs or something like that have an excuse. I'm not saying having physical disabilities like no legs is easy or less of a disability than anything else, but having emotional/developmental problems can actually affect a person's functioning in employment in more complex ways and it should be addressed more.

Last edited by Joe90 on 16 Feb 2022, 7:01 am, edited 1 time in total.