Functioning Autism

MetaFilter’s splitpeasoup:

There’s no such thing as low functioning or high functioning autism.

Some autistic people get labeled as “low functioning” and then go on to complete grad school STEM degrees and write seminal papers. Some autistic people are brilliant and extroverted and gifted and get labeled as “high functioning” but then get burned out and drop out of school and never see the outside world ever again.

“Functioning” describes neurotypical capitalist society’s ability to either make use or not make use of an autistic person’s life. It is not useful to label a person. Autistic people are always functioning as well as external circumstances allow them to.