I think it’s odd to complain that they (AS and autism) might be caused by completely different things, when we don’t even know for sure that all autism has the same cause. I know my mother prefers Asperger’s as a diagnosis (after I was diagnosed we have realised that she likely has Asperger’s too), because back when she was growing up autism was recognised only as a really severe disability, and so she has negative connotations associated with “autism”.

To all parents whose kids are still in school: remember! IEP means INDIVIDUALIZED education program! DO NOT let a school pressure you into just doing what they want if something better can be done, or if it ISN’T working for your child. If you need help standing up to the schools, you can usually find an advocate in your area to help you. (My mother was involved in this sort of advocacy, and still is.) Here are some sites to get you started:
http://www.theparentaladvocate.com/
http://wrightslaw.com/
http://www.ehow.com/how_2062558_advocate-childs-iep-meeting.html

If any one tells you that so and so can’t attend a meeting, ask why. ANYONE can be invited by the child or parent. if they tell you differently (without something like “that person has a Sex offense history and thus is not allowed to come withing x of the school!”) they are lying, and possibly breaking the law.

My son is an aspie, and his abilities are very different from even someone dx’d as hfa.

Tighter diagnostic criteria is what is needed.

Asperger’s isn’t meant to be a label of pride or expectation, rather a label of distinction.

This is a checklist of the symptoms of TLE: poppetree.blogspot.com/2010/01/temporal-lobe-epilepsy.html. For a diagnosis you need a minimum of ten symptoms

Asperger’s needs to be better understood & changing the DSM-V will hinder that. Our Asperger’s children need to be accepted and understood, not made to feel like they are “Bad” for their “Misbehavior”. Through it all I can honestly say that having Matt has taught me so much about patience and non-judgement, and compassion. At age 23 he lives at home and struggles to fit into society’s mold.

My prayer is that someday he will see himself as I do an amazingly strong, intelligent, good, human being.

@boniru comment via twitter

As for me, when I introduce myself to people who will need to know my disability such as the owner of the store I use regularly, my neighbors who check in on me, and those who I volunteer with, I say “I am Mildly Autistic. . .” followed by what that will mean in that circumstance. For example, the lady at the store knows that if I take a long time wandering around the store without picking anything up, I might be having an overwhelming day and might need my focus brought back to the purpose of my visit, or even help figuring out what to get.

I do not use the term Aspergers, in part because I feel like it is un-necessarily divisionary, potentially bigoted, and quite frankly I find it demeaning of the personhood of my friends who are less likely to “pass” as NT, as well as of myself on the days when I CANNOT pass. Also, because the PR work some “aspies” have done means that people assume that I will exhibit the same way as the famous ones do.

When I did use Aspergers, People assumed I was good at math or science- But I have Dyscalclia! I even got the “computer Programmer” thing tossed at me, and while I admire the programming of others, my own issues make it exceedingly difficult to generate original code. It does not occur to them that I could have a special interest in something like Anthropology, or in the histories of Oppressed people, or that just as there are certain skill sets learned by those with other special interests like math and science, I have learned skill sets relevant to my own special interests.

They expect to see social Awkwardness, and maybe hyper focus and clumsiness. They do not seem to expect Melt downs, or abnormal structure of sentences on my bad days, or that I might say something that sounds poetic to the NT ear but is actually a rather literal description of what I see in my head.

To me, the PR done in the name of Aspergers has separated us out from what the reality is for most of us, and from who we are on our bad days, and even subliminating our actual NEEDS to the point where in places like CA, USA, whole swathes of the population cannot get NEEDED services because they have an Aspergers Dx.

Right now, The backlash seems to come from two places- fear that it’s an elimination rather than subsumption of Aspergers, or plain old Pride. The first makes sense- the language is vague enough that unless you read the notes/official commentary, you might be scared that it is stricter than the old criteria, and that you might loose the services you were lucky enough to get. not technically accurate, but could in practice happen, even though those with Aspergers and PDD-NOS are, in the literature and commentary, by default a part of the new ASD criteria.

The second- Pride- is shameful, and the rhetoric from these proponents smack of ableism.