Quote:

»Prejudice is one reason decades of research got autism so wrong. Researchers measured autistic people against neurotypical expectations and called every difference a deficit. They tested empathy by measuring in-group preference and missed commitment to universal fairness. They measured creativity by counting the number of ideas and missed originality. They saw moral consistency and called it rigidity. They saw deep engagement and called it rigidity. They saw sensory richness and called it disorder.

Most critically, they failed to ask autistic people about their inner experiences. They studied autism without genuinely listening to the autistic perspective. For decades, science examined autistic people through a lens of pathology and deficit, rather than dignity, comparing us to animals while missing our humanity. But autistic people don't lack humanity. Research just lacked the humanity to see it.«

„ Research participants reported that barriers are not autistic traits, but environmental factors. Bullying. Lack of understanding. Sensory hostile environments with harsh lighting and noise. Forced masking that creates exhaustion and pain. Social rejection for being authentically autistic. Prejudice.“

So autism is not really an illness? It is just sensitivity to certain environmental factors?