I have watched both sides of this discussion for a couple of years now. Both sides make good arguments, but both sides are missing one point.
Autism is a sliding scale, this sliding scale does a very wide range and includes those who are non verbal, non social and unable to care for themselves. It also includes those who are extremely gifted and those who are almost NT.
What this also means is that the answer to the question of “Is Autism A Gift Or A Disability?” is actually. It depends.
The answer varies depending on who you ask, which autistic individual they are talking about and a person’s ability to cope with the different facet’s of a single individual’s autistic traits.
Autism in some can be embraced and any difficulties can overlooked, adjusted to or even in some cases changed. In other cases a family’s entire life must change to accomodate the child/adults specific needs or issues. I even know cases where a teen was severely physically abusive to his father when he got overly frustrated.
However I also know that Rainman was based on a true story, that there are child prodigies in both math and music that owe their abilities to autism. I know that in my own case when my son is not frustrated, he can be an absolute joy to deal with (he is also not large enough yet to cause serious damage).
What the autistic community as a whole needs to realize is that autism is not always a gift, and it is not always a disability. We also must not get upset at those who have the opposing view to our situation, because we do not know exactly what their situation is.
Autism is a fact of life. It affects those of us it touches on a daily basis and we must constantly hope that the touch it makes is for the better.
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