Do you consider yourself disabled?

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This isn't a debate thread. It's about if YOU personally consider YOURSELF disabled.


I believe that my depression is a disability; my AS is not.

Once in a while I feel disabled, but generally I'm autistic and proud.

Sometimes I think that Im not able to do anything right but thats just because of how NTs make me feel about myself.

I may make errors, but i am not disabled by far...

Not in myself generally; only in relation to other people and in certain situations.

Yes, but on a disability scale of 1 to 10 AS will be a pretty low number. The wife of a friend of mine has one arm, she's blind and last week she found that she's going deaf. That's disabled.

Ed Almos

As an aspie, no. My disability is my family (parents and sibs).

Last edited by whiteskunk on 26 Aug 2007, 11:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, me too. I find there is much more stigma attached to having depression than having Asperger's.

I think anxiety slows me down more than AS. I'm not formally diagnosed with AS, but some of my traits and interests have actually helped me succeed. Anxiety enters the picture in such high pressure situations as driving tests and dealing with angry and unpleasant people.

Heck, no. I don't consider myself disabled. But, in order to obtain support and things like SSI, etc., society
has to place a label on you somehow. The US government is more screwed up than I am.

In my country it's exactly the other way around. Here people aren't really surprised about someone having depression, but I know from experience that when you tell them you have Asperger's Syndrome and that Asperger's Syndrome is in the autistic spectrum, they look at you as if you were from planet Zork or something...

As for the question, yes I do consider myself to be disabled. I'm not able to maintain myself in crowded places, I can't even do simple things such as have lunch with my colleagues in the cafeteria, I can't keep a conversation going unless it's about a subject I have a good command of, etc. etc. But in my case there's also a good side of things. I don't mean to brag, but I am very good at thinking analytically, I'm very systematic, have a good memory. If it weren't for my Asperger's, I probably wouldn't have had those qualities either. So yes, I definitely think I'm disabled, but with this disability come some strong points as well. That's how I see it.

Nah, just misunderstood.

I do consider myself disabled. It doesn't mean I'm not happy with who I am - it just means I acknowledge that I'm not as high-functioning as some of the other aspies.

This might help:

The ADA defines a “disabled” person as an individual who has: a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual. (examples: caring for one's self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning or working)


My autism effects my daily life to the point I require an assistance dog, so yes I am by definition disabled.

For added info:
The ADA defines a service animal as “any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to perform tasks for an individual with a disability."

Definatly not.

I don't consider myself disabled.

Tim