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Autism Vox

Q & A: Autism a disease? disorder? disability? difference?

by Kristina Chew, PhD on September 17th, 2006

An article in today’s Texarkana Gazette entitled Autism: a disease with many questions and not many answers makes me reflect on the use of words like “disease,” “disorder,” “difference,” “disability,” and “difference” and others in talking about autism.

Which of these words—if any—do you use?

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Jannalou
Sep 17, 2006 at 2:37 pm

disorder
difference
disability

As appropriate.

Is an autistic person sitting alone in a room disabled? Is an autistic person at the library disabled?

It depends on the person and the situation. The person sitting alone in a room may be disabled because of executive functioning issues that won’t allow them to get up and leave, or they may not be disabled because they’re watching TV or reading a book and enjoying themselves.

And so on and so forth.
Lisa/Jedi
Sep 17, 2006 at 3:58 pm

This reminds me of speaking to B recently about these words… he had been using “disorder”, but when I explained that “disorder” means “not in order” or perhaps “not working properly” he was upset, & settled on “neurological difference” instead. I sometimes use “developmentally disabled” when referring to B, usually with folks who might not understand the possibilites of autism (& only the deficits) & I think it’s also an accurate term because of his developmental delays.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Sep 17, 2006 at 4:07 pm

I first was uncomfortable using “developmentally disabled” but have been using it more now—-I often use “neurologically different” too in some contexts. Disease, illness, sickness, something wrong—those are not good.
Daisy
Sep 17, 2006 at 5:15 pm

I use “disorder” and “disability” most of the time. We are comfortable with the word disability because my 14-year-old is blind and has Aspergers. I am also hearing impaired (not toally deaf), so we have two disabled family members.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Sep 17, 2006 at 5:32 pm

A close relative is physically disabled as a result of an accident and I got used to talking about disability too as a result. Also, my in-laws are both disabled—wheelchairs, walkers, elevator chair—–Charlie has had to learn to wait for them and is starting to help out by getting them things and doing some basic chores.
Julia
Oct 29, 2006 at 12:40 am

special needs (mostly about school stuff
disability

Of the people I most enjoy spending time with, one is blind and another carries a handicap parking hangtag in her purse, so disability issues come up at times. (Neither of them drives, and I like driving both of them; I just wish I could do so more often than I can. N. is one of the best passengers I’ve ever had, and T. is fairly pleasant, as well.)

I use “disorder” only as part of “autism spectrum disorder” or “pervasive developmental disorder.”
heidi
Sep 16, 2008 at 10:29 pm

is autism a disease? can you buy medicine for it. or do you have to take your kid to treatment???
Kristina Chew, PhD
Sep 17, 2008 at 1:23 am

Saying that autism is a disorder would be more accurate; autism is not an infectious disease (you can’t “catch” it). Treatment often incorporates both educational and medical approaches.
David N. Andrews M. Ed. (Distinction)
Sep 17, 2008 at 8:55 am

i use the term ‘autistic difficulties’ (as in, the sorts of difficulties that an autistic person will experience in typical everyday/working/school conditions _when there is no accommodation in place for that person_).

we experience difficulties, not disorder; we are psycho-biologically different but that is not actually the same as disordered (even using an epidemiological approach, the notion that we are is simply an appeal to number).

we certainly are not diseased, with regard to being autistic; of course, if we get ill (e. g., colds, infections, etc), we become diseased! otherwise… hell, no!

disability only occurs when the degree to which one is ‘different’ comes into conflict with a system that will not flex to meet those elements of difference that contribute along with that system to the existence of a disability (e. g., in a totally oral culture, there can be no dyslexia - even if we agree that dyslexic people have differences in brain development affecting areas associated with learning the skills involved in reading and writing - because it requires the insistence on textual repository of knowledge rather than the oral transmission seen in non-literate cultures).

so, disabled only in the absence of appropriate accommodatioin/support.
Simon Baron-Cohen on “Disorder,” “Cure,” and Autism
Sep 21, 2008 at 3:23 pm

[…] “disorder” or “difference” or “disability”—it’s a question that’s been considered here more than once before. Some might say these are just differences […]