ethan52695 t1_jci60yy wrote on March 17, 2023 at 12:16 AM

Reply to comment by victOwOia in Entrepreneur with autism inspiring others with pretzel business by stopwastingmymoneyl1

Yes, autistic people are deficient in some ways. This is the definition, “A serious developmental disorder that impairs the ability to communicate and interact.”. Autism is literally a deficiency in social skills that make it harder for them to succeed in a modern day society that relies on social skills.

I don’t mean to be offensive, but being deficient in something or having a medical condition that makes you struggle in certain situations, is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. But pretending that people with autism don’t need help or assistance only makes it harder for them to get actual assistance.

vegancookie t1_jciehkh wrote on March 17, 2023 at 1:19 AM

You can offer help via the social model of disability, different =/= deficient.

tangerinesubmerine t1_jcmfodt wrote on March 17, 2023 at 10:01 PM

Autistic person here. Sure, deficiency is part of autism. But autism is a grab bag, a whole spectrum of presentation. Some things we do worse than neurotypicals, some things we do better, depending on the individual. For instance the idea that autistic people make better scientists, engineers and programmers is widespread within those communities, and in fact it can even be harder to find a job in those fields if you are not autistic. But an inspirational article about a non-autistic person becoming a scientist would feel odd, wouldn't it? Maybe even a little patronizing?

I'm not saying autism is without it's downsides, or that we're better than neurotypicals, or even that some autistic people don't feel wholly disabled by their condition. In fact I'm sure this article might even be inspirational for some autistic people. But in that same vein, I think it's understandable that things of this nature ruffle some peoples feathers.

Everyone has different preferences, I know. But personally, if I ever started a business I would feel quite insulted to see an article like this.