What does it mean to be neurodiversity affirmative?

Thanks for sharing Autonomistic!

In the article there is a section on the value of disabled lives, however I don’t think that being autistic means I or any other autistic person is disabled. I prefer to use the term neurodivergent as being autistic is actually very enabling. By the way neurodivergent is a neutral term just meaning having a mind that significantly diverges from the neuromajority.

 I am aware that many of us in this autistic community have co-occurring needs/experiences and therefore may identify as disabled. What do you think about this?

Do you identify as disabled? I don’t think it is helpful to automatically assume that our autistic community identifies this way as we are literally neurologically different which naturally comes with so many benefits and to be autistic is my natural way of being.

I consider myself disabled under the medical model of disability for other conditions, but under the social model for my autism- I will always experience chronic pain regardless of the accommodations made for me, but I would be far less disadvantaged as an autistic person if the world was a more understanding (and quieter!) place. There are specific aspects that would always be disabling, e.g. I often don't realise I'm thirsty, but most things wouldn't be.

I think it's up to the individual to decide whether being autistic makes them disabled; there's no one answer to that question that applies to us all because our needs and experiences are so varied. I see both pros and cons to being autistic myself, but someone whose autistic traits are very different to my own might disagree.

It’s an interesting discussion and from my limited experiences since my diagnosis, I see so many parallels to the LGBT community and the struggles against a world that refuses to understand, refuses to listen and refuses to take us seriously because we are deemed to be coming from the standpoint or prism of our “dysfunction” or disability and so automatically dismisses anything that we have to say as “nonsense and foolishness” 

It’s an interesting discussion and from my limited experiences since my diagnosis, I see so many parallels to the LGBT community and the struggles against a world that refuses to understand, refuses to listen and refuses to take us seriously because we are deemed to be coming from the standpoint or prism of our “dysfunction” or disability and so automatically dismisses anything that we have to say as “nonsense and foolishness” 

IrishInManchesterUK said:

It’s an interesting discussion and from my limited experiences since my diagnosis, I see so many parallels to the LGBT community and the struggles against a world that refuses to understand, refuses to listen and refuses to take us seriously because we are deemed to be coming from the standpoint or prism of our “dysfunction” or disability and so automatically dismisses anything that we have to say as “nonsense and foolishness” 

Absolutely so do I! There are so many commonalities between our autistic community and other minority groups including the LGBT community. For example, in terms of rights movements and also historically (and currently) pathologising our autistic way of being.

In the book I recently read called ‘We’re All Neurodiverse ‘ there is lots of brilliant discussion about this overlap.

Thanks so much for pointing this out!