Asperger's and Being Considered "Disabled"

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If Asperger's Syndrome is not a disability but simply a difference then by logical argument is it unfair if someone with Asperger's is considered disabled and receiving a disability check?

No way.

By normal standards, some of the symptoms of AS, can be considered disablities.

Incredible point.

Yes it is unfair.

And above all it is hypocritical.

Opened my mind to a lot of things, thank you very much Silver Meteor. Especially the hypocrisy.

Can't it be both a disability and a difference? Or a difference that contains disabilities? After all, the definition of disability is something that limits a substantial life activity. However, disability can be mitigated by the right type of environment. You might find the social model of disability an interesting thing to study.

I can't comment on the legitimacy of the SSI issue - I think it would depend on the individual circumstance. However, I would say that SSDI should probably not be a permanent solution, if at all possible.

I believe that as someone with Aspergers syndrome, ie. a differently wired brain, I am predominantly disabled by this crazy neurotypically constructed world. Unable to enjoy this planet in a natural quiet state I feel that I am entitled to my disability allowance as an inadequate but partial recompense for a blighted existence.
I was woken at 7.30 by the sound of construction only a couple of hundred yards away. Diggers, rockhammers and the like. I woke in a kind of hell that is created by an insensitive and arrogant majority.

IMO, whether someone is 'disabled' is probably a matter of how bad their symptoms are. There are plenty of people who didn't get diagnosed with AS or similar well into seniority, and didn't have too much difficulty functioing in society. Likewise, there are individuals who have extreme difficulty functioing their whole lives.

It depends on how 'high functioning' someone is. Lets assume Bill Gates is on the spectrum; he is anything but disabled. Same with Dan Akroyd, or Craig Nicholls. Many of the diagnosed aspies here are functioing perfectly fine, some of which probably have had no intervention other than receiving a diagnosis. Those at the very high functioing end might be socially disabled, or have occupational problems, but they are otherwise fine and able to function.

Yet, many cases of Aspergers are severely, severely disabling. Throwing all cases, disabled or not disabled, under one label as disabled, IMO, is inaccurate. The people who are truly unable to function without assistance are the ones who need the aid. The people who are very high functioning don't deserve to be stigmatized as disabled.

I think Asperger's Syndrome is one of the most disabling medical impairments around. Compare it to being physically impaired (without legs for example). A person without legs might easily get a job because besides having no legs people can relate to them easily and they can relate to others easily. The person with Asperer's however alienates their co-workers and can't communicate easily meaning neither the Aspie nor the NT co-workers relate to each other. As such, often Asperger's does mean an inability to work. That could be changed if people were made to adapt more to people with Asperger's syndrome but that would require some self-analysis and regulation for the NT population.

You only need to look at the name "Social Security" and then you know why we need this money. We are different for sure and its not actually a disability. But NTs have created a world where being social means success. If everything was based entirely on skills then there are no problems.

We are forced to compete with everyone at a disadvantage because its not really suitable for us to be in their system so until we get some freedoms to play by our own rules then we wouldnt have to be recognized as disabled in their world.

I see disability benefit as something to compensate me for living in a place where my skills are wasted.

Yes, it is illogical and hypocritical for people to say such when the majority of diagnosed individuals with Asperger's truly are disabled compared to their peers; "disabled" is an emotive term, so I can see why people become aghast at such. The same applies to "disorder".

I'm assuming if you ask some of the older individuals around here who weren't diagnosed well unto adulthood, that compared to their peers when younger, they were "disabled" in the ways the disorder is defined.

It's a difficult issue, because merely knowing that someone has AS doesn't really tell you anything about how disabled they are - only where their disabilities are likely to lie. Whereas if someone is blind, you've got a pretty good idea of which things they'll find difficult/impossible.

Another problem is that aspies are often able to do things, but find them very difficult. I can handle social situations to some extent, but find them utterly exhausting. Someone looking on wouldn't necessarily know how difficult I find this stuff. Having said this, I certainly don't need a disability cheque - I'm quite capable of holding down a job. I see AS as a disability and a gift in approximately equal amounts. That doesn't mean it works out that way for everyone.

Your brain is not wrong or deficient.
It's just incompatible with most ways of society life.

Now, I don't think we need any special money, but just different schools (and only because normal schools so much about being socially adept, not so much to the actual schoolwork) and the options of being able to work in a different environment.
I mean, there's the i-pod now when it comes to work, and with HFA it's not as if socializing is 100% hell. I don't see it being much of a problem after high school.

Until society begins treating us the same as NTs and lets us pursue careers that less able NTs are allowed into its right and proper to take whats offered in meagre compensation from the state.We have to accept their current definition of AS as a disability to avail of what little legal and social protection that is offered to people who are oppressed because of their neurological difference.

Waaait. If you say it like this, then I say: I am treated like a NT, which is the whole problem of being autistic. I'm not NT and I fail life being treated like the NT.

But I'm all for human rights applying to people with AS too, since they're, well, err, unalienable human rights. Right now, people can even kill anyone who's different, disability or not and they get away with it compared to committing the same crime on people who're considered h normal. That's just not right. It's the last step on the scale of discrimination against people who're different or who act different and it shows that the discrimination runs too deep to discard it as a minor issue as politicians do.

If the person cannot function in the world because of his/her Asperger's, she/he is disabled. The purpose of disability programs is to help people who are unable to make their way in the world due to causes beyond their control. If they CAN function and are simply taking the money because of a label, that's pretty darned sleazy.

I had a hell of a time, when I was younger, in the workforce. I did find that there were a number of careers in which someone like myself, who was pretty non-social, could do quite well. I liken it to being good at math. Some folks are, some folks (myself included) are not. I could never be a mathematician or an accountant. Still, there are a ton of jobs out there that don't require one to have to use much math. And there have been some for which being an Aspie was perfect - my jaunt through being a quality control person was a good example. Working nights in a computer room by myself, where the only person I ever saw was the janitor every night, was heaven! (It paid really well, too, and I learned it on the job.)

I'm one of the "olders" - we had no interventions. We (from having spoken to other older Aspies) got mentally beat up a lot, but a lot of us found our way through. The more severely impacted of us didn't. It used to be called "the school of hard knocks" - you found a way, some non-standard way, of getting through life. Or you didn't. It made a lot of us hard, some of us it broke. Take whatever support systems they've put in place for you now - schools, intervention, programs/training - and run with them. You have no idea how lucky you are that they exist.

But the one thing you should NOT do is say "I can't make it because I'm an Aspie." You are a non-standard model, yes. You may have to work creatively, and smarter, and probably a lot harder than someone who is "NT" to get by if you want to play in their world. That's the breaks - you play the cards you are dealt, the best way you can. You hustle your backside to get ahead. It's not really all that different than being dirt poor, or an immigrant from another country who does not speak english or who has never been to school or from a culture in which if you are a woman you do not speak to men. You have to find a way through. It's doable. It can be painful, but if you keep after it, it's doable. Even for those who are really, seriously down there on the spectrum, there's always ~something~ they can do. Excepting, of course, the folks who are so withdrawn that they're rocking in a corner in an institution, or the equivalent. Those folks need the social services dollars. It's, as I said above, pretty sleazy for someone who can possibly make it on their own to take those dollars - there are only a limited amount of dollars.

There's truly a place in the world for everyone. It's when you give up on that thought that you break. Of that much I am absolutely certain.

Good luck.

Last edited by Nan on 13 Feb 2008, 12:35 pm, edited 3 times in total.

[quote="Sora
Waaait. If you say it like this, then I say: I am treated like a NT, which is the whole problem of being autistic. I'm not NT and I fail life being treated like the NT.

quote]

Obviously I mean we should be given equality of treatment-as in for instance job interviews where our percieved lack of NT body language and/or eye contact should not be held against us and jobs denied us.