@bardmoss @filmfreak75 @autistics being autistic is a disability under the social model of disability. This means that there is nothing inherently wrong with someone who's disabled, but that they are being disabled by a society not built for them. The way walkers would be disabled by a hypothetical society of wheelchair users who would build all ceilings to fit sitting people, or the way hearing folks not fluent in Sign Language might be in a Deaf event where all communication is done by signing.

So autism is definitely a disability, because we are being disabled by the allistic majority.

Re: disorder, I also think this kind of language is unhelpful and offensive, probably for all the conditions or ways of being described as "disorder". Like you can also be borderline or bipolar without calling it a disorder. And of course this goes for just being part of a neurological minority, such as being autistic, and I'm still waiting for ADHD folks to tell me what to call them without the deficit and disorder language.