EDIT: Please read the reblogs
As an autistic person, I really hate the “autism is a disability” narrative.
I get why people use it, to justify their differences as inherent to their biological makeup and not just a personal choice, but that makes me sad — can differences not be biologically inherent without being a disability?
In today’s world, aspects of autism can certainly be disabling. But personally, I don’t consider myself at all disabled by my autism, because it doesn’t get in the way of me living the life I want to live. I socialize exactly as much as I want to. The people around me support my special interests. My sensory sensitivities only come up occasionally and are easily remedied when they do. Hell, on a daily basis, I’m more disabled by my allergies.
Is my experience common? No. Am I incredibly lucky? Yes. But what exactly is the lucky part? The specifics of the way my brain is wired?
No. The lucky part is my environment.
My family is open-minded and understanding. My parents have enough money to support me without me having to get a job. I have the time and freedom to get to know my own needs and plan accordingly. 
And that’s really all it takes for me to live the life I want to live.
It might sound like I’m gloating here, but that’s not my intention at all. What I’m trying to say here is, disability is a social construct. It’s entirely dependent on a person’s circumstances and environment. If I lived anywhere else with anyone else, life would be a hell of a lot harder for me. And what this means is, disability is not an immutable fact of life. It’s an active process — a disabled person is actively disabled by the world around them. Autistic people don’t disable society; society disables autistic people.
I just want other autistic people to know that an experience like mine can and does exist. If you have to leverage your disability status against people who otherwise won’t listen to you, that’s absolutely valid. But I just want you to know that being autistic doesn’t make you broken or incompetent, and it doesn’t make your experiences less valuable than anyone else’s. The way your brain is wired to operate is a valid way of life, and it’s society’s fault you don’t have full access to that life, not your brain’s.
