The reason that so many autistic rights activists and other folks interested in fostering autistic well-being have embraced the neurodiversity paradigm, and are opposed to framing autism as a pathology (e.g., a “disorder” or “condition”), isn’t that we’re pretending autistic people aren’t disabled. Rather, it’s that we’ve observed that the pathology paradigm serves to exacerbate rather than mitigate autistic disablement.
