Do I think being autistic is a disability?
You can be disabled and proud to be so
Do I think I am broken? No. Absolutely not.
Do I think I am disabled? Yes.
[This was originally written in 2019]
I went back to work today after being off for two weeks. Before entering the office, I went to the office bathroom. I go to the bathroom about 20% because I need to use it, and 80% as a coping mechanism to either calm down or gain composure before entering the office. Like I did this morning. The bus was manic, the streets were loud, I just needed a moment in the quiet confines of a toilet cubicle.
When I walked in, I was met by the sight of two robot looking things on the wall. The hand dryers had been fixed and upgraded. I could tell they were going to be loud. I wasn’t wrong. Someone exited a cubicle and proceeded to use the dryer. The noise roared through my brain and I put my hands over my ears. Not only had I lost my safe place, but throughout the day I was being pushed to sensory overload when I really did just need the toilet.
I’ve come a long way and I knew there would be a solution. The first I thought of was, I could use the disabled toilet. Then I was struck by the feeling that I shouldn’t do that. Then I questioned myself as to why I thought that? Autism is classed as a disability. I was struggling to use the ‘normal’ bathrooms. Why did it make me feel so uncomfortable to consider using the disabled one?
Let’s get pedantic for a second. I’m autistic, humour me.
The equality act defines disabled as ‘you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.’
Now by that definition I would certainly argue autism falls into that category. And of course, legally, it does. Let’s not forget that if you want to argue autism is not a disability, you are arguing to remove our protection under the disability part of the equality act, as well as our right to reasonable adjustments at work. That’s aside from disability benefit and a ton of other support available to help autistic people.
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