I recently saw a TikTok video of an autistic person mocking the notion that autism is a disability, they were addressing a lot of autistic traits that allistic people and neurotypical people view as being a deficit, but that autistic people see as our strengths, and I was conflicted about the messaging of the video. I responded saying “Yes to not viewing everything autistics do differently as a deficit, no to the further stigmatization of disability in the autistic community. Autism is a disability, and that’s okay.”

As someone who is part of the autistic community, I have noticed that there is still some confusion around the term "Asperger's syndrome." I will periodically run into someone who insists “I don’t have autism, I have asperger’s.” While it used to be a commonly used term, it has been phased out in recent years, with the DSM-5 (the diagnostic manual used by mental health professionals) no longer including it as a separate diagnosis. So why is this the case? While not the only factor, a big reason is we don’t like to name things after Nazis.