Hey there Skhan, the point is that disability isn’t a dirty word. And while it’s wonderful that not every autie is persistently disabled by their autism, that doesn’t make it less of a disability for those of us that are — and when we seek support, we’re faced with NT’s going, “but you’re differently abled, you should be able to do that somehow, you just need a better attitude.”

It’s a problem. Some of us need the word to survive, and it’s denied to us because of how we seem, and because there are people running around saying it isn’t really a disability.

I hope that in a decade or two we will be looking at things very differently, but, for now — that is a life-saving word (literally, our suic rates are terrifying) that denies or gives access to support, and many of us are having to fight to get anyone to believe us. Please try and understand.

My perspective was greatly shaped by the autistic autism researcher Jac den Houting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1AUdaH-EPM — she expresses your point about society in that video, and explains the social model of disabilty.

There’s mannnnnnnnnnny reasons why this perspective is being expressed, some of us are barely surviving — I hope you’ll try to understand, and that you never ever have to understand first-hand.

Hope your weekend’s a lovely one.

Meg