Autism

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A community for respectful discussion and memes related to autism acceptance. All neurotypes are welcome.

We have created our own instance! Visit Autism Place the following community for more info.

Community:

Values

Acceptance
Openness
Understanding
Equality
Reciprocity
Mutuality
Love

Rules

No abusive, derogatory, or offensive post/comments e.g: racism, sexism, religious hatred, homophobia, gatekeeping, trolling.
Posts must be related to autism, off-topic discussions happen in the matrix chat.
Your posts must include a text body. It doesn't have to be long, it just needs to be descriptive.
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Be respectful in discussions.
Do not post misinformation.
Mark NSFW content accordingly.
Do not promote Autism Speaks.
General Lemmy World rules.

Encouraged

Open acceptance of all autism levels as a respectable neurotype.
Funny memes.
Respectful venting.
Describe posts of pictures/memes using text in the body for our visually impaired users.
Welcoming and accepting attitudes.
Questions regarding autism.
Questions on confusing situations.
Seeking and sharing support.
Engagement in our community's values.
Expressing a difference of opinion without directly insulting another user.
Please report questionable posts and let the mods deal with it. Chat Room

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Helpful Resources

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founded 1 year ago

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I would appreciate a diagnosis or classification of autism that isn't described as a disorder (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Using a social perspective to autism, I would appreciate if there were a way to classify someone as autistic without calling it a disorder. Yes, we have difficulties, but from a social perspective, a lot of them come from society being structured to meet the needs of allistics. They get guidance, acceptance, and ultimately privilege of a world that is designed for them, while we have to try to meet their expectations. From this perspective, we're not disordered, but oppressed/marginalized. How does that make us disordered?

I agree that there are different levels of functioning, and that some individuals might meet criteria for a disorder due to autism spectrum characteristics, so that would be valid. However, many individuals would function quite well in a setting that was designed to raise, educate, and accommodate autistic brains.

Anyone have any insight or ideas on this?

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes!! Thank you! If everyone were autistic, then our society would be structured around it. People would understand sensory overload, direct communication, dislike of hierarchies, lack of conformity, disappearing for days/weeks/months, need for order, etc. Society would be built considering all that into it, so it would just not even really be a thing.

Kind of like there could be an alien species that looks exactly like us and enjoys stimulation while sleeping, so they think that humans are disordered because we have difficulty sleeping on beds that shake like an earthquake all night. "Op, yep. Those humans and their sensory sensitivity while sleeping. They're disordered and need accommodations."

Since the majority of society doesn't have autistic nervous systems, the assumption is that deviations are disordered and allistics are not. That's what I'm getting at. Surely, there would be individuals that need more support than others, but support would probably be woven into the fabric of society, just like there are some individuals that suck at defending themselves from violence, so society created systems to protect those more vulnerable.