Asperger’s Syndrome, Disability or Different Ability?

Is Asperger's Syndrome a disability or a different ability? While both have some truth to them Asperger's Syndrome, for those who are diagnosed in adulthood doesn't have to be a negative disabling isolating reality. Understanding your differences more and accepting them will enable you to succeed.

Ability is defined in Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, as "being able," "power to do," "skill or talent," "capacity or tendency,"

Disability is defined in Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, as (among other things) "something that restricts; limitation, disadvantage."

However, what one thinks of as restricting or limiting or a disadvantage may for another be made to be the "power to do," a "skill or talent," a matter of a different "capacity or tendency."

In other words, what is literally defined as a disability can in fact be turned into many different kinds of abilities by those with Asperger's Syndrome (AS).

Notwithstanding that there are arenas in which AS is a challenge and I'll admit can even feel like a disability I think what's most relevant here is how one thinks about this. If you focus on the negative then AS will be mostly about being a disability for you. If you focus on the positive AS will speak volumes to the joy of difference that even if difficult at times is as much, if not more, about difference than it is about being disabled.

It's all a matter of perspective. We all need to learn, more and more, each and every day, to be more open to one another as citizens of this world that we share. We need to embrace differences.

All-too-often we categorize and pathologize differences because what is not "like" us is not always understood and therefore tends to be threatening when we let it be.

Each and every person wants, needs, and seeks to be understood and validated for who he/she is. Sameness has somehow become this cherished thing that more often than not leads to acceptance and inclusion. Whereas differences have become threatening,unwanted, and unaccepted and continue all-too-often to lead to rejection, judgment, and exclusion.

In so far as Asperger's is not understood by many, yes, there is a component of it being a disability there. The differences that adults with Asperger's present, particularly in relating and the area of socializing and to some degree just communicating, is to varying individual degrees a disability. How much of a disability this really remains in one's life, is also individual and depends upon many factors