Disability or Difference?

I felt rather inspired to try my hand at this debate that is so prevalent within the autism community today by posting this, um, rather controversial topic.

You have your opinions, your own views of your autism, but mine and some other autistics are different with their opinions. I say this to remind you to not be surprised to see some autistics disagreeing with the “autism is a difference” idea that is being debated on the autism net today.

Mine are of the latter. I personally disagree with people saying, or denying, that autism is not a disability. I also disagree with people saying that autism is a difference, and not a disability. But i won’t use this post to fakeclaim or to judge anyone, i am just sharing my views on this matter.

For me personally, my autism is a big disability. It may seem like an offensive word for some people, but it is the truth in my case. I am impaired socially, and maybe even a bit mentally as well as a result of having the autism that i do. I bet that other autistics prefer to use the disability term for this reason, or for others, and that is fine with me for sure.

I don’t think my mental and social, emotional too, impairments are just a difference. They disable me actively. I can’t do certain things because i have struggles with my social skills, same for my emotional skills. I have struggles with the things that i mentioned above, like some mental struggles. You also have struggles because of your autism, diagnosed or not, and that is what a disability does, and this is my second reason as to why i don’t personally agree with the difference term.

I guess the same could be said for the neurodivergent label. But i will get into that debate later on as this one is already too risky, i don’t know the WordPress crowd and i don’t know what they tolerate or don’t tolerate regarding autism. Autism is such a hot topic these days, with a lot of debates springing up about issues like this one and more in person issues like how neurotypical and even how other autistic people view us as.

This is my personal view. I am not using this post as a way to convince anyone to change their personal view on their autism. I am simply just sharing some of my thoughts.


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