Take a moment and imagine that someone calls you disabled. Ask yourself, do you agree or disagree? What feelings come up for you? Based on your lived experiences, like your interactions with family, teachers, doctors, friends, and society more generally, how has your relationship with the concept of disability been shaped?\n > \n > Even though many governmental organizations officially recognize autism as a disability, this doesn’t mean that all autistic individuals identify as being disabled. Members of the autistic community have such varied lived experiences, which contributes to whether we each identify as being disabled or not. Moreover, how we relate to the concept of disability differs as well.
This was such an interesting read for me. I’m not ND, but I was very physically disabled as an adult and I’m minorly physically disabled now. I also got MS recently to add to the stack. I have nothing but invisible disabilities and it’s very annoying. People have a lot of opinions about what I can do and they never match my own. It’s hard to own the word disabled when I mostly live a normal life. I’m so very capable compared to most, but I definitely need accomodation that I often have to provide for myself. I definitely connect to my daughter’s current and future struggles.