Should People w/ Autism Sue?

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If buildings were not wheelchair accessable, if they said, No People of color not welcome, or they said no women need apply, people would speak out, boycott, and even sue.

But for some reason, it seems to be OK to advantage of people that are Autistic, because of their good nature, or inability to understand someone is taking advantage of them for purposes of profit, labor, or even sex. Yet, we do not sue these people. Why not?

Isn't the way to make these people not discriminate and hold them accountable to following the American Disabilities Act, to sue them?

I for one think that if started suing people for there mistreat of us, people would not mistreat us so much?

What do you think? How many companies can you think to sue because they discriminated against you?

Hmm, well your examples of mistreatment towards autistics can be pretty much applied to all mankind. Foreigners for example can be the prime victim of such tactics.

Some shopping malls terrify me, because of all the lights and not wanted shops. But other people love it. So what should the owner do?

Well, I think reasonable accomodations are the concern here. If there is a light bulb that stores, cars, malls, offices, grocery stores use for athetics, and they can use a reasonable alternative, they should. If it changes the whole image of the store, no, or if it prevents them from making a profit.

It is ilegal to discriminate against people based on race, culture, or creed. If I was Black, and suspected a company denied me a job because I was Black, I would probably sue.

But it seems OK for business to discriminate or fire an employee because they do not want to hire someone with a disability, or are unwilling to accomodate a person's disability so they can do the job correctly, or give them a job or duty where their disability is not a factor.

Yeah we can sue. We should still be allowed.


Can you have your parents help you understand something if you don't understand it yourself? I always call mine and talk to them and they help me figure stuff out. Can your parents help you get through your suing problem?

I wish I had someone that I could call and have me deal with all the stuff life throws at me, but I don't.

Your mother doesn't help you figure things out? I thought you said you had the same kind of mother as me

What if you were White, and suspected a company denied you a job because you were white?

My mother doesn't except my dx. Still in denial, I guess. She just thinks I have specific learning disability, not Autistic, that is too much for her to handle.

I don't talk very much with my family, except my brother. I believe that most my fraternal side of the family is somewhere on the spectrum, but not to degree as me.

If discriminated on the basis of race, it is discrimination based on race, regardless of the race, Black, Hispanic, or even White. I know I have been given jobs because I was male.
I know there are minorities that hate White people, just like there are White people that hate non-whites. Discrimination is not limited to any race, gender, or culture.

This is an angering issue for me because I have tried to take someone to court along these lines - and lost. The reason was that the system failed to recognise the specifics of Aspergers, and as a consequence the case was thrown out as frivilous.

We should have every right to sue when others fail to take our condition into proper account and penalise us wrongly - and deprive us of our basic rights in the process (such as the right to work).

I've mentioned this before - but in Australia this is something that I am working to change on two fronts (both political) with the federal government in Canberra, and the state government of Victoria.

I feel your pain. I am thinking of starting to launch lawsuits against others for failure to provide reasonable accomodations in accordance with the American Disabilities Act.

I think in order to win a case, you have to show six things:

1) That the defendant was AWARE of the problem
2) The Disablity is covered by law
3) You asked for reasonable accomodations
4) You have a legal right for what you are asking to have
5) Others have what you are denied only for not getting the reasonable accomodation
6) The defendant made NO REASONABLE attempt to make the accomodation

I did this against he University I attended.

I asked for a notetaker 4 months in advance for a class. They still didn't get me one because they didn't bother looking and they didn't want to pay anyone (what they did with the federal dollars to hire one, I don't know). If they would have paid someone to take it, or better yet, asked the instructor to ask a student to take notes for them for "extra credit" they would solved the problem. The Disabilities office, wanted me to approach people in the classroom, myself, tell them I was Autistic, and ask them to take notes for me in class for free, until I found a willing participant. Can you believe that?

So they lost, and they had to reform their system, but nonetheless, they are still disfunctional, but that is Idaho for you, heh.

Best Regards,

Idaho Aspie

This mentality is scary. In prinicple I agree (like with IdahoAspie's case), but it's not called an invisible disability for nothing.

The same issues can (and are) brought up about workplace discrimination. If a company hires someone who is AS, can the AS person be a d-head and not be fired? If a company hires someone with ADD, can the person basically not work? How hard would it be for someone to fake a pysch test, or just plain bribe a psycholoist for a false diagnosis? Considering you dont have to disclose your condition, and can even be diagnosed after the hire, the potential for abuse is horrendous.

Yes, some requirements are reasonable, but our society has zero track record for stopping at reasonable. Personally, I think it's unreasonable that an existing facitily be required to put in ramps and expand bathroom size for wheelchairs. If a place is small enough, there's no way to expand a bathroom and still have room. Indeed, if a facility is efficiently designed to existing standards, ANY decrease in profitable space can cause serious harm. The ADA is real hell on mom and pop places. It can easily cost tens of thousands to retro-activily redesign facilities in something as simple as a one room hair-dresser. We tend to think about government buildings or WalMart, but where I live, they said every bathroom must meet minimum handicap access standards, AND every restaurant and gas-station must provide a publically accessible bathroom. Not nice to a little pay-only type gas-station.

This is a good example... A "reasonable" replacement, with our society, could be twice as expensive. It could require half as many man-hours to produce (with the additional cost in scarcity of resources). It could have a detrimental effect on the environment. And yet, because 1% of society has an increased chance of seizures from flickering, we effectively outlaw the more efficient bulbs, cause untold damage to the environment, waste natural resources, put people out of work, and hurt small businesses. Society tends to err on the side of unreasonable rather than reasonable, once the ball starts rolling.

This is a hard subject for me. On the one hand, I'm adamant about not being walked all over or taking advantage of. Adamant about putting people in their place when they do, letting them know that they made a huge mistake. But on the other hand there are so many frivolous lawsuits out there that nowadays when someone sues it's very hard to take them seriously. People sue for fame, people sue because they think they can get filthy rich.

I want to point out that I do think crippled persons and people with AS are very different. America is still in it's infancy in relation to making public places disability-friendly. I understand that bright lights or loud noises can bother an autistic, but we need to understand that not every place is catering to every disability, and we can't just sue them for it. Can you imagine what the world would be like if every business was expected to cater to people with OCD? Every product must always have labels facing forward, rulers would be needed to stock shelves, everything would be alphabetized. People with germ phobias? Sinks and soap in every aisle. Not to mention that eventually, trying to cover all disabilities and disorders, things would begin to clash.

I think people with disabilities should have understanding like businesses should. Not every business has the means to offer 6 months of job training for people with AS so that they can become well adjusted, etc. And I respect that.

I think there are much more productive ways of bringing about change, becoming noticed, without suing everyone's pants off. I don't want people to associate that type of behavior with me when I tell them I have AS.

I read about your experience in the hospital, and to me it just reeks of a busy place, busy people, trying to rush you and get you out of their hair. Sounds like you didn't have a lot of choice and kind of got swept up into everything considering the pain you were in physically and how overwhelmed you were with the paperwork. You have a debt now that you may not have had, had someone actually listened to what you were saying or understood something about autism. Your lawsuit seems just to me ('cause I know that means so much to you ;] ).

I think for many instances, businesses or places like hospitals, libraries, schools, should be required to have a general education about disabilities and how to deal with people with them. I think this would be a better start than just running around suing everyone.

Yeah, but it is MANDATED that NO job, realestate,club,education etc... be geared towards males or whites!! !! ! If you die today, and say your money is to create a fund for african males, african females can ALSO use it! If it is for white females, ANY females can use it! If it is for white males, ANYONE can use it. And they laugh at the idea of reverse racism!

HECK, in california, and maybe any other state, TECHNICALLY male restrooms can be considered unisex EVEN if there are even MORE female restrooms.(Statistically, women don't NEED to go more than 33% more often, but their social actions make things take even longer)