Thanks for your comments. It's all a terribly complex debate really. A whole load of issues can arise about how we relate to other activist groups. However, the legal picture about disability is not a straight forward one. If you apply for a job you are often asked "Do you consider yourself to be disabled?" They are asking whether you would consider yourself disabled irrespective of whether social security would in other words. I would consider myself slightly disabled as a result of society's attitudes to people like me. For instance, I was ostracised throughout my childhood &  experienced terrible frustration because I couldn't fit in and didn't know why. Crucially nobody seemed willing to try and understand me or my point of view! As a result it affected my self-confidence for years after. That's why I raised the idea of the Social Model of Disability - this states that disability is not something somebody has, it is what society does to people who are different in some way.

Anyway I'm at work and my break's over so I'll have to dash off. It is a complex debate & I do think we in the autism rights movement need to thrash these things out properly as we will encounter these issues.


Cheers


Roderick