Is autism a disability?

[00:00:00]Autism is a disability.

[00:00:02]I already know off the bat people are going to call me ableist for this video, but there are so many people on TikTok right now that are trying to sugarcoat it for what it actually is, and they're saying things like, "Oh, autism, it's a special ability." Or it's autism is undercover genius that we're not aware of. And you sure that could that could be the case with some things, but as somebody with cousins with severe autism, like one of them to the point that they literally cannot communicate.

[00:00:31]The other one's not as bad, but he doesn't know that he has autism, right?

[00:00:36]And maybe I'm being nitpicky about this, but I think so many people on here are so worried about trying to coddle and be like, "Oh, that's not a bad thing.

[00:00:43]That's not a negative thing. Let's spin this into something positive." When it doesn't need to be spun into something positive because it is what it is.

[00:00:51]Autism is a disability.

[00:00:53]And there are a lot of people with autism that need help because they cannot do things on their own. They cannot communicate what they need to communicate. Or disability, it's not a bad word. Because when you have people that are trying to fluff it up to be something that it's not, you're going to have a reaction to that, which is people that don't take autism that seriously.

[00:01:17]And before anybody tries to spin my words, I am not saying that people with autism are just their disability. Of course, they are very beautiful people that just happen to have a disability.

[00:01:28]And that shouldn't be something that someone's afraid of of saying.

[00:01:38]>> I'm going to be blunt. Saying that autism isn't a disability is ableist.

[00:01:44]When you say that autism isn't a disability, it blatantly disregards the very real experiences of all autistic people, but more specifically moderate and high support needs autistics. So, you don't have to like or use the term disabled for yourself, but if you say that autism isn't a disability, you are being ableist.

[00:02:09]Look, I'm going to hold your hand when I say this.

[00:02:12]Being autistic and ADHD is inherently disabling in the world we live in. And if you're a level one or high functioning or whatever else you want to call it, you're disabled. And it doesn't have to do with your capacity, your skill, your effort, whatever. It has to do with the model of the society that we live in. Nothing in the world is built for us. Classes, transportation, health care, eating habits, just like anything you can think of, everything is kind of ableist. And it's not that people are always deliberately ableist, it's that people don't even think about autistic traits or ADHD traits as disabling. Let's give an example of engaging with someone in conversation. A lot of people get upset with you if you're stimming. If you're not making direct eye contact with them or you're doing something else with your hands because that's how you focus, they see that you're not paying attention. Seen as rude and it's seen as weird. And sometimes you get in trouble for it.

[00:03:08]That is disabling. A lot of autistic and ADHD people focus much better when they are stimming. It should not be a big deal to accommodate for things. It really shouldn't. So, I would recommend that you be okay with calling yourself disabled. Once you get into that mindset, it is much easier to ask for accommodations. It's much easier to be kinder to yourself. It's much It's much easier to unmask and engage with your special interests and hyperfixations and whatever else you need to be aligned with yourself. Ignore society. Listen to yourself. Listen to your body if you can. But at the very least, you don't have to follow along with society and what it tells us.

[00:03:55]You want to hear a hot take?

[00:03:56]I love being autistic and I wouldn't trade my autism for the world.

[00:04:00]>> [snorts] >> I'm not arguing against the fact that it's a disability, but I am arguing against the fact that it's only a disability.

[00:04:06]Autism is a beautiful variation in the way that the mind works and I want to list some reasons why I love being autistic. One, super obvious already, I love things so deeply, so passionately and you know what? It's actually most people's favorite thing about me and I wouldn't have that if I wasn't autistic. I truly believe that I wouldn't be able to love this deeply if I wasn't able to feel emotions this deeply. Next one, people talk about sensory issues often, but people don't talk about what happens as an autistic person when you find a a texture that you love. You know, like I found I find so much pleasure out of something so simple and I think that is super freaking cool. Another thing I love about being autistic. And this one is a little bit more controversial.

[00:04:53]But to be accepted amongst my peers, I developed a special interest into making myself appear more attractive. And it worked, bro. I am hot as Right now, I look a I look a little bit busted, but you're going to have to trust me on that [laughter] one.

[00:05:08]Autism is a hard thing to live with. I'm not arguing against that at all. It is difficult. However, when I come on to social media and I see autistic creators only talking about the horrible things about autism and like how we're struggling and how we're in so much pain. First of all, yeah, totally valid.

[00:05:29]But second of all, I want to be happy as an autistic person and 99% of my problems may be because I'm autistic, but 99% of the things that I love about myself is because I'm autistic.

[00:05:42]Love will always prevail against hate and there's plenty of things to love about autism. And I love being autistic.

[00:05:49]It's time to bring love and light into the diagnosis and acceptance because being autistic is not a death sentence.

[00:05:57]It's not a doom sentence and you don't have to live a miserable life because you're autistic.

[00:06:03]Comment what you love about your autism.

[00:06:05]I want to hear about what you love about your autism because autism is not only a disability.

[00:06:13]Mwah, love you.

[00:06:15]>> [music] >> How I think about people with autism is like Okay, think about it this way.

[00:06:25]When you look at like Windows computers and when you look at Mac computers, they're both computers. It's just that their brains and it's just that their like system is different. That's how I think about neurotypical people and autistic people.

[00:06:43]But since there's when it comes to autistic people, there's 1 to 2% of us.

[00:06:51]I do think it counts as a disability because think about it.

[00:06:55]When it comes to autistic people, there's like what? 1 to 2% of the world's population.

[00:07:00]And yeah, if you And because of that, that's why we just can't survive.

[00:07:09]It's It's not that we can't survive in a neurotypical world. We just have to like and do things that are out our comfort zone to live in the neurotypical world.

[00:07:21]And because of that, that's why in my opinion, it's a disability because we're like we have to do we have to work twice as harder. We have to like give more of our energy even though like it drains our battery a lot. We have to like stay strong. We have to be like resilient because for us to survive, that's what we got to do.

[00:07:49]And we're like trying so hard to survive in a world that's not built for us.

[00:07:55]If the world was mostly Mhm.

[00:07:59]autistic people, then I don't think autism would count as a disability. You get me? I don't think because hey, like people are straightforward, people are authentic, people mean what they say.

[00:08:14]And the world is built on on is not built on social cues.

[00:08:18]Then yeah, if everyone in the world was mostly autistic, then yeah, I guess it wouldn't be a disability.

[00:08:27]But since everyone in the world is mostly neurotypical people, that's why autism counts as a disability.

[00:08:39]I mean, on legal papers, you can technically say that yes, you do have a disability. But a lot of people will look at your disability and they'll ignore it. They'll think that hey, you have autism, a lot of people have autism, and they're still surviving.

[00:08:55]Even though you know that it's really, really hard to survive. So yeah, it is not it's not fair.

[00:09:02]We still got to work, pay our bills, and get bullied at work at the same time. So yeah.

[00:09:10]I wish we lived in a fair world, but apparently we don't.