What's your impression of Neurodiversity?

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Okay, so ideas about ND have been around for awhile now and they've been generally warmly welcomed by the online autie community. Older more militant ideas about ND (reminiscent of Aspies for Freedom) tend to center around totally normalizing autism to the point that any kind of help or intervention is frowned on. More modern ideas about ND celebrate each autie's uniqueness while also recognizing that we can also sometimes benefit from some help. (I know I can.)

My husband, despite his aspieness, is uber-anti-ND and has a very old impression of the activist movement. (What can I say? He's read a few old articles on the topic and is very stubborn.) So I wanted to come here and ask auties what their impressions are of ND. Because I suspect he is painting a lot of people with a very broad stroke when it really isn't representative of what the majority of autistic people believe in. So I'd love to have peoples' inputs.

Thoughts?

PS: This is my new account. My old account was under the handle, "Sophist", which is how most people know me.

I think the A.S.A.N. Neurodiversity movement is okay, but I've never heard of the ND movement.

I agree with promoting acceptance of people who are neurologically different.

I disagree with the notion that 'autism isn't a disability', because according to the official diagnostic criteria, that is factually incorrect. If it's not causing 'significant impairment in functioning', then it doesn't qualify as autism.

A lot of what I see on here about neurodiversity is centered around arguments about whether or not autism is a disability versus a difference....which I find strange because:

(1) Disability is a type of difference;

(2) It shouldn't matter whether or not autism or any other neurological condition is considered a disability, if you're truly advocating for people of all neurologies to be accepted, valued, treated equitably and with respect and dignity.

I believe that people of all neurologies have equal value as human beings, that we should all be accepted and shown respect and dignity, and given opportunities and a place in our communities -- whether or not our particular neurology includes disability/impairments.

I don't have a problem with help and intervention for anyone as long as it is necessary or beneficial, not abusive, de-humanizing, or otherwise harmful to the recipient and as long as the recipient's wants/needs/opinions are respected and considered, as far as it is possible to know or guess what they are (given that not everyone is able to communicate those things).

All people are functionally limited in one way or another though we have accommodations for those limitations. Example, no human is able to fly without the accommodation of an airplane, no human can dive below a certain depth without the accommodation of a submersible device. The truth is that all humans need accommodations for things they can not do of themselves.

What we in the neurodiversity movement are saying is that we need more accommodations for the things we can not do without the necessary accommodations & those accommodations need to be allowed for us to use. Some accommodations do not require any monetary outlay for society but because they may look odd or be mildly disruptive such as certain types of stimming often society shuns these people even though they may be competent to do the work with accommodations & may even be better than the other workers at that particular job.

I for example have very poor short term memory. Fortunately I have the accommodation of my smart phone where I get all my dispatches. If I forget some part of my dispatch I can refer to my phone as I have the dispatch program on my phone.

With that accommodation I can do my work which is drive a heavy duty truck which while I may not be the fastest thing on 18 wheels but I always get the work done & return safely with out a lot of break downs. Only three break downs in 7 & 1/2 years & only one could be concidered my fault & that was in the first year with this company.

My low breakdown rate can be attributed to my exceptional mechanical comprehension as I evaluate my techniques with an eye on reducing stress on the drive train. This has been noticed at my work place as I have one of the lowest truck down time of anyone.

This is all part of being autistic for me. I'm exceptionally poor at some things & exceptionally good at others & not much in between as far as abilities. It's either one or the other. Unfortunately the things I'm poor at interfere with being able to use the things I'm good at as far as making the best use of these talents. I would have liked to done some sort of engineering or be an inventor, I have come up with several ideas that came to market some time later. Unfortunately for me someone else had the same idea as me & was able to patent it & get it to market.

I believe that all kinds of people are valuable and your worth is not measured by what abilities you have. I also believe that only disabilities which cause pain or suffering (eg depression, chronic pain disorder, life-threatening conditions) really need to be cured. I also think that disability can be a positive part of your identity, and that a disability which strongly affects how your brain works inherently has to affect your identity in some way.

I'm leery of the whole thing. I frequently get the impression that these are people trying to speak for me, and they're saying things I never would agree to.

I do ardently hold that autism is a disability, full stop. It's not society's fault, it's a defect. So someone talking about acceptance as though understanding will fix my problems are not likely to get a warm reception from me. As yet, nobody's offered me a compelling reason to think otherwise.

I don't know, but the more eggsperiments I and others do on me, the more neurodiverse I seem to be...

I find myself leery of it too. There's a thing, especially in social media where it seems like autism is going from a label to a badge. One that says autism means unique rather than disabled. I would maybe like those people come up with a different term for themselves than autistic. Someone who insists that their supposed autism is an attribute that needs acceptance from those damned ignorant NT's and not something requiring any kind of clinical or therapeutic intervention, are not doing a favor for those of us who actually suffer from it.

It goes back to those making autism the new gay, and the thought of curing it is along the lines of wanting to cure being LGBT.

Please keep in mind that not all of us who advocate for acceptance believe autism is not disabling.

Nor do all of us believe that acceptance will magically make austim non-disabling (I do believe that social attitudes towards disabled people generally, not just autistic people, adds difficulties on top of the inherent disability and makes life more difficult than it needs to be.... but that's not the same thing as saying autism is not a disability if people accept you as you are).

Nor do all of us who advocate for acceptance see NT's as enemies/universally ignorant or intolerant/some kind of alien species.

I consider autism to be a disability, but I also believe that people should be accepted and valued and supported as they are -- disabilities and all.

This doesn't mean I don't believe in treatments, therapies and education to help us develop skills and minimize disability -- or even remove it totally. I just don't think it's okay to write a person off as not having any worth, or anything to contribute to the world just because they're disabled. And I don't think that making us normal should be anyone's focus -- helping us to learn skills, exercise independence, and have a good quality of life should be the focus, and sometimes the best way to do those things isn't normal at all.

I think people can decide for themselves how disabling autism is for them.
They can say that autism is totaling disabling for them as it prevents them from doing many things they want to do, or that autism is not disabling for them as they can work around many issues to do what they want to do.
I consider it individual perspective about difference vs. disability, and both of the above are equally valid to me.
I don't think it is necessary to impose one or the other on all autistic people, since autism varies so much, as does personality, intellectual ability, family background, life circumstances, etc.

Animalcrackers, I'm aware of the difference. You're welcome to those views, all I ask is that you do not attempt to speak for me. Most "ND" types I've seen seem very keen to do that. Given that they also go on and on about Autism Speaks not speaking for them, the hypocrisy is blistering.

I'm fine with people saying "I want, I need", I'm not cool with people going "we want, we need" and including me in that "we" without my consent.

I agree that autism is both a disability & a difference combined. For some the such as myself the disabling part can be compensated for. Yes I am disabled but not to the point of not being able to work, just not in field of employment I would have liked to work.

I spent 10 years on social security disability & that shows that I have significant problems & I am in fact disabled but with reasonable accommodations I can work. I realize that is not true of everyone. Even those who can't work due thier autism though have value & they can & do add value to those that unfortunately don't always see it that way.

By the way I'm cool with the we want we need accommodations mentality because by acting as a group you can do a better job of bringing awareness to our needs better as a group granted though everyone's needs as an autistic are in fact different as all of our characteristics are different. The we want we need will help those better in the I want, I need situation to get what they need eventually provided that the people who are doing the general autism awareness activities are not being unreasonable with thier requests for societal support.

No matter how you feel about Autism as a normal human variation punished by society or Autism as a true defect keep in mind that bith ASAN and Steve Silberman the two leading figures in the ND movement at the moment both describe Autism as a disability.