Different Operating System
Being Autistic is like having an iPhone in a world that was built to only support Android software—there are constant miscommunications, gaps in data, and re-charge stations are few and far between. Every now and then you may come across another iPhone, and it’s a relief to communicate so easily and freely, but 98% of the time, you are struggling to get basic information across. When you tell people that you didn’t receive their message, they accuse you of lying or incompetence. When you try to tell people about how much you’re struggling, they say, “I make typos sometimes too, so aren’t we all a little bit iPhone? Anyway, you could be more like an Android if you just put in more effort.”
To make matters worse, whenever you call IT for help, the helpline runs on Android software, and the consultant on the other line, has (at best) heard of iPhones, but they don’t know about even the basics of iPhone programming, let alone proper maintenance and troubleshooting. Plus, whatever knowledge about iPhones that they do possess, it is based on shoddy science and fundamental misunderstandings.
But the iPhone isn’t malfunctioning. It doesn’t need to be fixed. It is an iPhone, doing its best in an Android world.
This is why autism is not a problem and why it is a disability. We are dis-abled by a neurotypically designed world.
Most people understand disability from the medical perspective, however, most disabled folks, prefer the social model of disability which basically says that if I lived in a world designed for me, I would be fine. The problem isn’t within me, the problem is living in a society that was not designed to accommodate my minority needs.
Non-disabled people hold tremendous privilege. So much so, that it is the general belief that non-disabled accommodations are “normal,” and everything else is a “special treatment.” Similarly non-disabled people are “normal,” and everyone else needs to be “fixed.” The arrogance.
No. Just no. This is similar to people who want to “cure” people of being queer. Queer people do not want to be cured of the way that we love, the same way Autistics don’t want to be cured of the way we think and experience the world.
Similarly, our current systems (which, let’s be honest, are nothing to brag about) were designed to support the needs and interests of what is deemed “typical.” Typical does not equal normal. Typical describes something that is expected. Normal, by definition, means conforming to what is expected.
Typical is a data point. Normal is a judgement. Autistics don’t want to be “normal,” we want to be accepted.
In the world of dogs, herders are not deficient retrievers. They are herders.
In the world of humans, Autistics are not deficient allistics. They are Autistic.
This is also why I don’t have a disability—I am disabled. My disability isn’t my personal problem, rather it describes the fact that I am harmed or hindered by typical accommodations.
If autistics made up 98% of the population and allistics were the minority 2%, then in all likelihood, the world would have been designed to support typical--in this case, autistic--needs and interests. Therefore, allistics would be disabled and require allistic-specific accommodations to get their needs met.
Autism is not a problem to be solved, it is a difference to be accepted and supported.