What's your impression of Neurodiversity?

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A disability in and of itself, or due to societal factors? These aren't mutually exclusive, of course. It's people who choose only the latter that I take issue with.

Everything that many low functioning autistic people can't do is also something that completely normal members of other species can't do either. For example, many monkeys and birds can't be toilet trained, and of course most animals can't speak. But they usually live in environments where the ability to do those things is not necessary to accomplish their goals.

(Note: I am not trying to devalue anyone by comparing them to animals. I don't see humans and animals as having inherently differing value.)

I could imagine a functioning society where everyone was LFA. It would look very different from our society, but in the right niche, it could probably work.

This doesn't mean an LFA person will do fine in our society if we just stop oppressing them. They will need help to live in a world that isn't designed for them. But so does my dog, and most people wouldn't consider my dog disabled.

I do think autism is a disability, but I don't think it's a disability in all contexts.

This seems to be a point of contention between me and some other people around here. Because I do think so.

Can you please clarify. I had a really crappy day and I'm afraid my comprehension is a bit off.

I would prefer a neurodiversity that values individual differences and recognizes what is unknown or ill-understood instead of the kind that say these are the points we must all believe and you must believe or else you are the enemy.

I think that's an absolutely true statement:

Autism is not necessarily a disability all the time.

It was never a disability when they needed me because I could work for two or three days straight or could just dive in and fix problems.

Of course. Quite simply, I do not believe there are any circumstances under which autism could not be a disability. That does not mean it's always disabling...



... but something does not need to impair a person in every situation to constitute a disability.

Thanks

I do agree. Now that I understand....duhhhhhh....

Been a craptastic day and I appreciate the patience to clarify. My incoming seems to be on the fritz today. It was so bad that I was rocking in a chair. I Rarely rock. I will fidget, I will sway when standing still or twirl a bit in a chair or pace. But today it was bouncing legs and rocking back and forth.

Poppycock

Without context that means nothing to me...care to elaborate?

edit: sorry....had a typo that really ruined the request.....

By itself, at times greatly exacerbated by societal factors

I'm not saying that autism isn't a disability & I'm not saying that mine has't proved to be a disabilty, after all I did in fact spend 10 years on social security disability for a reason. It took me a long time to find something that didn't constantly overwhelm me with performance requirements I could not meet due to my slowness ,poor coordination, anxiety & poor short term & working memory. It has been a huge struggle for me.

Just because someone found work that they can do doen't mean that they don't still have disabilities. Many people with disabilities work & some even in high technical or high responsiblity type jobs. Mine is somewhat high responsibilty but not in the overall picture sense. I don't need to know what all the other people are doing only myself & where I fit & that is really the limit of my need to understand as well as capability to understand. I would not be a good dispatcher due to my poor working memory but driving a truck is very much routine not requiring working memory to a large degree. All I need to do is know how to get where I'm going & since I been to most places many times it is no longer a short term memory thing for me. If I'm sent to a new place then sent back again a month later I will have to use the GPS again to get there but if you send me there 3-4 times in a short period like 2 weeks it will finally sink in & I won't likely need the GPS to get there anymore unless I'm not sent there again until more than 6 months down the road.

I never derided anybody that can't work because of thier disability nor will I as I was in the same boat it seemed for quite a while. All I ask is those of us that for some reason can't work not look down at those of us who are working as posers or not having a disability because we are in fact still disabled just as much as a person who in a wheelchair but has been able to find work that doesn't ask them to do things they cannot do. They still are disabled just as we who are autistic are still disabled. Working does not suddenly get rid of the disability, it's only been compensated for often times just barely enough to make it possible but not necessarly easy for us.

I do see autism as a disabilty. I also see that it can have it's advantages. Having advantages does not take away from the disabling aspects. It is often very difficult to find work that someone who is autistic can do due to the disabling aspects even if the person is very highly intellegent otherwise. The very high intellegence actually works against such individuals in many cases creating a paradox that is often very difficult for them to handle emotionally. They are often capable of doing the work but not capable on thier own to be able to get the job that an even less capable NT might easily get. While I'm not super highly intellegent I'm intellegent enough to be very frusterated with my place in this world & not being able to fully utilize my intellegence in ways that I would have wanted to. This often leaves me deeply depressed to the point of crying all day long at times.

Germanium: I'm not sure why that's addressed to me. It pretty much sounds like you're agreeing with me.

I do see it as a disability from both the medical & social side of things. I do see that at least in some cases that accommodations from the social side of thing can make the difference between beeing able to work or not. This of coarse does not mean that the person that is now working does not have a medical disability just like requiring a wheelchiar for someone who's legs do not work.

I do see the social side as often being the limiting factor for many autistics keeping them from being able to work because of inadaquate accommodations. Medically disabled people often can & do work because society has made room for them in the workplace but just as often if not more so they don't make the necessary accommodations.

I do also see that some autistics can do some types of work that few if any NT's can do given the opertunity. In that sense one could say they are differently abled. By me saying that I'm not saying that they are not disabled in many ways still.

I for one have a relatively low overall IQ but exceptional mechanical comprehension. For this reason even though I have the low relative IQ (89) I have still been able to discuss the conceptual aspects of physics with a friend of mine that has 9 years of college physics plus a lifetime of use & still occasionally win an argument with him. I have difficulty with the math myself but he knew the equations needed & when he did the calculations he found me to be correct.

Even though I have a relatively high level of understanding in some ways I have not been able to put them to practical use so that still leaves me in the disabled catagory.

I think the only place where we may differ some is in the aspect that many autistics even though they are in fact disabled also frequently have exceptional abilities, It's just often those abilities are not valued socially enough for them to make the necessary accommodations. I agree that it is not societies fault that we are medically disabled but that society could do more to reduce the societal limitations to our being able to have productive lives if that is what we want. That would reduce the societal aspects of disability.

I think your post is dead on. Agreed! You're also correct about where we'd disagree, but even then I don't disagree all that strongly; it's just a matter of the degree to which we believe the same thing.