Am I disabled?
Is being autistic a disability? I'm not sure this is the best question. We might be better to think in terms of how much support a person—any person—needs to survive and thrive in our community. And to consider how inclusive we are of all people in our community. Practised inclusivity (not just something espoused) is a pretty good measure of our civility and humanity. A society can be technologically advanced, culturally rich and diverse, and yet appallingly inhumane.
The problem with disability as a concept is that it is circumscribed (or defined) by ability. Ability—to be able—is a cultural concept. A person may be blind or deaf, they may be autistic, or "mentally ill"—whatever that is, or have some other characteristic, but it is the society in which they live which decides if they are able. Which means that the decision is ultimately made by the powerful, to suit the powerful. Ability is always, therefore, linked to how much a person can contribute to the economic bottom line. Ability means power and inclusion. Disability tends to diminished worth, exclusion, prejudice and scapegoating. "Disabled" persons become outcast.
In the end, to say a person who is autistic or blind, is disabled is to label them as a liability, or worse. Listen carefully to people talking to aged, blind, deaf people. why do so many of us raise our voices when talking to a blind person? Why are we so patronising? Do you hear the disgust, the impatience, hatred, when strangers must interact with a "disabled" person?
And who decides who is disabled, or what constitutes a disability? What if I were shepherding like my great great Uncle Tom? Happy on my own for long periods, I’d be a great shepherd! Disability is incredibly contextual. The social awkwardness that leads to exclusion and censure in one place is happily tolerated, even celebrated elsewhere, if a person is savant in an area like maths or programming. Disability as a metric enables us to avoid asking why people don’t and can't fit in the modern world. We don’t have to ask the hard questions about excessive workload, noise, and constant bombardment by advertising trivia, which all make the world less liveable for everyone. We simply say someone is not fit for purpose or, if we are politically correct, disabled. Disability is an inadequate metric for anything other than bottom line profit.
Do I need support? Absolutely. Is the need for support contextual? Of course, I need support for situations that didn't even exist in my childhood. But need for support is inclusive by definition! “Disability awareness” only sounds like inclusion, as it judges me and marks me as different. I'm not saying that these terms and their implementation are intentionally prejudicial, but they are always undermined by the fact that disability is a negative term.
For example, Disabled Toilets, such a great advance in their time, still mark me as different. With an invisible physical difficulty, among other things, using them also marks me for abuse! Access Toilets are a whole new world. They are inclusive. Everyone can use them. In fact, they are often cheaper!
Of course, inclusivity is also a cultural concept. But it is a positive definition rather than one which is excluding. Inclusivity can, and will, be only as inclusive as our prejudices allow. But it does not begin from a premise that some of us are lesser. It aims to value all people equally simply because they are human.
I have said that inclusivity is a measure of our humanity. But, in fact, the valuing of a person by our attempts at inclusivity increases our humanity. The last parable in Matthew’s gospel touches upon this. There, disabledi people are among those who are sacramental of Christ. To be in the presence of Christ is to be in the presence of one who is fully human. He offers us a role model for the truly good life, a life which accepts the outcast as human, and includes them. This heals us.
Let me briefly unpack the theology here. Jesus tells a story about the end of time, meaning the context is about the ultimate meaning of life. The story he tells is a typical story of the time about judgement before God. The story is a psychological ambush: As people relax into the story, and their prejudices about who will be found adequate before God, Jesus changes the script. Those who have done well in life are not the ones who have kept God's Law, but those who have been compassionate to the outcast. This is shocking for his audience because those who are outcast, the sick, the poor, the prisoners etc, were assumed to be in that state because they had sinned before God and were already being punished. To help them would be to contradict God! And here is the ambush for us: Every time we've looked at someone sick, or destitute, and thought they did something to deserve that, or maybe their parents did, we are subscribing to that theology. We judge them. Disability invites judgement: Their mother drank too much when she was pregnant; they were driving too fast; if their parents had been better, they would not be autistic. Prejudice dilutes anything factual.
Jesus totally contradicts that. The outcast, who so often include the disabled, show us Jesus. In secular terms, privileging a disabled person as equal to us, expands and enriches our world. It makes us more human. To privilege them as equal to us is to stop using the term disabled. It is to ask what support they need to thrive in the context of our current society. It is the same question we should ask for all of us, and we ought to base our political and social goals around that, instead of around profit for the few.
The last thing to say about using words like disability or differently abled is that their effects are often somewhat invisible to those of us who are able. To be officially diagnosed as autistic has changed my world. It has to go on forms. I feel the prejudice. People talk about me differently. The abled decide what is disabled. Inclusivity gives everyone a voice.
Andrea 27/10/2026)
You may be interested in Being a Burden, or in a deeper dive into Matthew 25:31-46 here, and here.
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i Disability leads to hunger and thirst, even prison.
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