I’m not picky about “official diagnosis” for this question; I know there are a variety of reasons not to have one either intentionally and/or willingly or otherwise.
Do you folks consider your autism a disability? I have seen online a number of people say they don’t think it is, and it may not be so much for them, but someone with higher support needs might think it is. But also I don’t know those posters’ support needs, so I can’t really judge on that basis either. I figured the easiest way to find out would be to directly ask you all. So if you feel comfortable answering, I would appreciate your feedback.
EDIT: Sorry I can’t respond to everyone’s comments; there got to be a whole lot of them! But thank you all for your input!
Most of the ways my autism disables me are either direct results of having to exist under capitalism, the way people treat me when they find out about it, or the ways I was systematically railroaded and thrown aside by institutions as a child when all other children and poorly trained adults in power saw was “a weird kid, who reacts with equal or greater violence when attacked and ganged up on by the other children”.
I don’t feel like my autism itself is a disability, or at least not a severe one, but I will describe it as such in situations where I feel saying “I have a disability” will get the necessary support and understanding I need, without triggering the infantilisation and miscellaneous mistreatment that disclosing autism specifically tends to cause. I don’t feel like it gets in the way of things I want to do, most of the time. Yes, life is harder for me than a nerurotypical person in otherwise identical circumstances, but some of that is the autism itself and a lot more is just due to society being incredibly inaccessible for anyone outside a very narrow norm and due to things that I missed out on as a child due indirectly to autism - aforementioned institutional abuse and my mother not knowing any better than to enable it.
Essentially, I believe very strongly in the social model of disability, and I really do think that I often suffer a lot more because of other people than directly because of how my brain works differently.