My Personal Issues with Aspergers and KY Towns.

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A lie of omission, right? I disagree. There are some unconstitutional laws, and many for which the constitutionality is questionable. A lot of mental disorders don't affect one's ability to drive, and are none of the government's business. Forcing people to reveal personal medical information that has no bearing on one's ability to drive a car is stepping beyond the bounds of the role of the DMV's. DMV employees are not trained to evaluate the effects of various mental disorders on one's ability to drive. How each person's driving ability is affected by his or her disability will also vary from individual to individual. They aren't qualified to make those calls either. If you can pass the written and road tests, you can obviously drive safely. That's ALL they should be concerned with. If the tests are not revealing people's shortcomings, then the tests need to be changed.

There is no necessity whatsoever for them to know anything at all regarding mental disorders, unless your doctor knows you could be a danger to society, in which case it should be their job to reveal that to you if they do know, and your responsibility to inform the DMV.

Not answering a question one feels is unconstitutional to ask in the first place is not a crime. There is no crime in refusing to answer any question, except in court case when ordered by a judge, if and only if you are not invoking the fifth amendment. With that single exception one is not compelled to answer any questions at all from ANY government employee for any reason at all.

Part of the issue with DMV's is that driving a car is supposedly not a right, but a "privilege." That however, is an extremely antiquated concept stemming from the days when pretty much everyone had to get around without a car. That is no longer true today. Driving in this day and age should be considered a right, not a privilege.

As far as I am concerned, requiring answers to questions like this is a very slippery slope. It really isn't that much of a stretch to imagine that if they can be allowed to ask questions like this, they may one day ask what religion you are. It's a wedge that could eventually open a very nasty gash into our rights to privacy.

First point, under the Maryland law, most people here would not have to go before a medical board because "autism," rather than "autism spectrum disorder" is what's covered. Therefore, anyone with PDD-NOS or AS would not have to go before a medical board.

Second ... If you're ever caught (highly unlikely -- medical records are private) with nondisclosure in Kentucky, just say that you didn't know AS was covered as a "mental disability" or whatever they called it. You see? It's easy to get a diagnosis for depression or ADHD these days. I'm honestly not sure if these are covered as "mental disabilities," and I'm not even sure AS is. Most criminal statutes of this nature require intent to deceive, and it would be very hard to prove intent in this case.

Third, Oregon requires disclosure of cognitive impairments and then provides a list. I'm pretty sure that "processing speed" and "spatial ability," etc. are cognitive impairments only when below 70 on a cognitive test (the ret*d threshold). If, for example, you score 83 on "sequential processing" and 140 in verbal, you are not "impaired"; people with an IQ of 80 can probably get a DL without disclosing that they are below average.

Finally, I am surprised Texas let ME drive without going before a medical board (or at all). Fortunately, I wasn't diagnosed at the time, and almost got people killed for 3 years before I became semi-safe. It's sheer luck that I'm not dead.

Last edited by Tyri0n on 27 Nov 2012, 1:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

Hi.

I live in Kansas. When I took driver's ed when I was 18, they asked if any of us were autistic or had any mental issues (their word, not mine). I answered honestly that, yes, I did have aspergers. They took note of it and I thought nothing more of it until I graduated the class and was denied my license. I was told that because I had told the truth, I would have to be evaluated yearly by a licensed psychiatrist and receive a letter of recommendation to be filed with the DMV every year or I would lose my license.

For 2 years, I did as I was told, but then I got mad about it. I refused to see a psychiatrist or submit a letter. They suspended my license. I drove anyway till I was finally caught several years later. It raised my insurance rates, but it did give me an opportunity to argue my case before a judge. I went and saw a different psychiatrist who wrote me a lovely recommendation and letter for the judge who then removed this restriction from my license.

While I am certainly not at all recommending you break the law, I would suggest you either just not say anything about your condition when asked, or be prepared to file a case to have such a restriction removed from your license so this doesn't haunt you in the future.

Legally, AS is not "autism" so unless it says "autism spectrum disorder," I'm not sure you're even required to disclose it at all if you have AS or PDD-NOS.

That would have been great information to have 13 years ago.

Sounds like a clear case of discrimination to me. They can't deny you a driver's license because of AS. I'd get a lawyer. If that does not work, call newpapers, TV stations, ect. Tell them how your state is discriminating aginst you.

I don't think I've ever heard anything so biggoted and disgusting. I'm so sorry that this happened to you.

You should seriously get a lawyer to deal with this. You were discriminated against because of your AS. It's illegal.

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Please don't refer to it as "Asperger's disorder", as it's an outdated term that paints an unnecessarily negative picture of Asperger's Syndrome. Also, Asperger's is not an illness.

Be careful of the terminology you use, as many people wouldn't be as diplomatic about it as I've tried to be.

It's not automatically illegal and discrimination in some cases. It's tricky. The government does at times have a compelling interest that can over ride anti-discrimination laws. I think we can all agree that someone who cannot safely drive is a threat to themselves and others.

In this case, the woman's comments were inappropriate.

I don't know your situation if your a good driver or not so I can't comment on that.

go up to her and ask for the DSM or the DMV again

when refused ask for help finding keyworded books such as bigot, prejudice, etc

stock yourself up with those words and keep asking for different forms of the same concept (no repeats)

also, call it "fourthfold potential of genius syndrome"

it'll really peeve them off, but it plays along the authority paradigm they love to stick to so much, and by putting yourself on a pedestal they'll automatically sense themselves being put down, and that envious feeling will either earn disdain immediately


another thing to do is just continue bugging them, say, every hour or so, or something like that just go up and ask

better make sure you're good at driving though, there's prejudice against nerd's bad hand eye coordination because they can't handle fast dynamic environments, which driving is, and that's a danger to others if you can't handle it