Do you see AS as a handicap?

Post Reply New Topic

My mother sees autism as a handicap. Though I find that NT's are handicapped in their way too. We have different sorts of, if it depends on me. What do you think?

No one resents themselves for having AS? Where is Mosse nowadays?

No. Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses. And my weaknesses don't require the need of special services or nothing.

Depends on who's keeping score. It's a handicap if NTs are keeping score.

personnaly i believe it is a blessing, it takes a lot of work and a lot of courage but in the end it is all worth it. what i mean is, you need to work twice as hard as a NT to make your place in life, and there is a lot of people that dont understand, so there is a lot of explaining to do, but there is so much good stuff that can come out of it, its incredible,

basicaly dont give up, and believe in yourself

I don't see it as a handicap. I can see full-blown autism as a handicap, but not just AS alone.

I would have to say yes as AS is a social handicap. I was with an AS girl who said something that would probably have been taken as biting someone's head off, but I chose to disregard it as a comment only and not anything else. I would presume an NT wouldn't see this to kindly.

(I haven't voted at the time of writing this)

Taking care to be precise in the meaning of words, and not clouded by political correctness, I do see that AS is a handicap for many people. It is not, however, a disability for most people. Defining a handicap as a condition that requires some form or degree of accommodation, AS manifests as a social handicap in a substantial majority of cases. Personally, my only meaningful relationships are few in number and are only with people that are tolerant of my many subtle differences. I can't just get on with people as the majority of non-spectrum people can. Because I am capable of working around this, I am not disabled; however, because I do need to be accommodated somewhat to develop meaningful interpersonal relationships, I can be considered to have a social handicap. A disabled person cannot bowl or play golf; in those games, a handicap is simply an accommodation made by adjusting scores to make the competition more meaningful.

Moving on from the linguistic pedantry into the deeper meaning, AS presents with social handicaps ranging from virtually none through very severe. While most of us learn to get by anyway, making the numerous little adaptations that we do even without thinking does absorb a significant amount of energy and we do tend to get run down and withdrawn at times. I suspect that all people experience this to some degree, but it tends to be more common and more severe among certain groups including spectrum people.

AS does come with an upside - the ability which many of us share to understand complex systems and to hyperfocus can be very useful for learning and performing complicated and difficult tasks, as well as thinking separately from the herd. While AS can be a very lonely existence at times, I wouldn't exchange it if it were possible - being someone other than yourself is MUCH worse.

In some ways it is. If I attempt to socialize like NT's do, then I'm handicapped.
But I don't 'need' contact with people like NT's do.

I don't have the ability to learn very complicated things like computer networking.
But I have enough ability to stay employed.

I don't have the ability to pick out fashionable clothes.
But I can look nice.

No, I don't see it as a disability.

I wish I could vote for two options (but I guess that would stuff up the statistics):

(•) It is, though it has its advantages
(•) I think it is better to have autism/AS than being NT

It is a disability for me because it is hard for me to function in society alone and it is hard for me to manage myself alone.

But being autistic has its advantages (such as the IQ of 150, something which you rarely find in NTs, and also the intense focus on interests and perfection) so I would rather be autistic than NT.

I see my AS as a handicap that I can work around. I may be handicapped, but I'm living independently and holding down a job at a job site. Also, who says that it's wrong to be handicapped? I don't. Maybe Hitler thought that way, but I certainly don't. All that matters is that I'm happy and that I have a good social network with friends and family who support me.

I'm Sid :O)

I still don't believe in a cure for people on the spectrum.

Melissa summed it perfectly.

Yeah, I think it often (usually?) is a disability; but there's nothing wrong with being disabled, nor is it all about impairment. There's more disability in the simple fact that you're different from other people than in AS itself, because everything's designed for them and not you.

It can be a handicap to some. It isn't for me but it is for some others. Lot of aspies aren't handicapped I'd say because they have jobs, families, can talk to people, and we are capable of learning. Heck even Temple isn't handicapped. She was but she over came it she said thanks to the help from her mother. Not all autistics are handicapped either.

when stuck with these choices i would say it is, but that it has its advantages...

but i am also reminded by a Japanese saying i got from a anime: "Specialization breeds weakness", but as a counter to this i would say, human advances are made by the strange, not by the common.