RaphielDrake

Wait, we can do that? Wow, finding parking spaces while doing math is going to be a hell of alot easier from now on. :-P In all seriousness I thought the band of disability determines whether or not we are entitled to privileges such as that. I must confess to not having thoroughly of researched that. It still doesn't change the fact that the definition of disability is accurate. Yes, there should be more sub-categories under disability. It is ridiculous the amount of generalization that is used when concerning it and I would whole-heartedly support the broadening of understanding in this regard. However I must reiterate that changing the title to diverse ability or something else lacking the negative commentations of disability is just self-deception. We do that we might as well rebrand starvation as reduced nutrition expenditure, war as a particularly vigorous union of nations and death as oxygen conservation. You follow this train of thought to its nth term and eventually you are left with a language that resembles newspeak from the novel Nineteen-Eighty-Four. At what point do you admit that life isn't fair, negative commentations exist because of the human language not inspite of it and that adversity is simply a part of the world we live in? Obviously it is by no means the width and breadth of who we are but it *is* a part of who we are. To deny that is to deny the extent of what we have achieved in overcoming our difficulties. Thats simply not healthy. Doesn't the term "mental disability" work? Again more sub-categories with context are required but as an umbrella term it works nicely.

That analogy would work better if the definition of diverse ability was even remotely similar to that of disability but it demonstrably isn't. Plus the word "queer" has insulting implications as it is used for describing something strange and odd too. Homosexual is a far more accurate and unbiased description of the sexuality so it follows that it would replace the former. Other than that I don't disagree.

Are you saying that response wasn't condescending or dismissive?

What an incredibly condescending and dismissive retort. Yes I have read your original post and the others. Diverse ability going by its true definition is a misleading thing to call it and the current term is far more accurate. Disability is a fairly broad term that can vary from slight artheritus in the left hand to being a full paraplegic. Either way it is a term that works. What you are suggesting is that we overlook that and change the term for it simply so it is more palatable for those under that term. Well I am very sorry but that is not a good enough reason. Its not even as though disability is a term that doesn't have subcategories. It does, if that wasn't the case then conditions under the umbrella wouldn't have names and distinct descriptions which they evidently do. Rebranding disability would have very little effect except diverse ability in about ten years time would have the same negative commentations associated with disability and someone else would call for another pointless rebranding. Prejudice would survive just the same.

I have the same. If you want to be seen for what you can do with your skills then display them until they can no longer be denied. Let your skills be your defining mark if that is what you want them to be. Changing a label will not change a thing, it is not a solution. There will always be prejudice, the only thing you can change is how you respond to it when it occurs. Also I do not consider it to be rude to ask why someone cares as it displays an interest in... well... why you care. What is the reason for labels being such an issue to you? Its a question, nothing more.

Sorry, are we being serious? Look if my spinal cord is severed then the only change is I lose the ability to walk. Thats not an ability, thats a disability. If that wasn't the case Professor X would be the most powerful mutant of all time because he wouldn't just have the ability of psychic powers but he'd also have the terrifyingly diverse ability of not being able to go for a jog. Its just silly. Besides couldn't everyone claim to have diverse abilities? As far as I'm aware no-one on this forum has precisely the same skill set. It seems like trading an accurate description of something that effects many lives negatively for an inaccurate and slightly deceptive one simply to avoid feeling inferior. However it is only the people who allow a disability to become to core of who they are that feel that. The people who strive to do well inspite of being aware they are at a disadvantage are the ones who represent humanity at its finest. If you deny their disadvantage then you cheapen what they have achieved. I do suffer from a disability and I am not ashamed of it, I also have many advantages and I am not ashamed of them either. Both are equally diverse, both must be realistically approached, neither make the whole of who I am. I don't particularly care what others make of that, why do you?

Yeah, I can relate. Online shopping for the win huh? Seriously, anything you could want whenever you could want it at the click of a button. One less thing to do.

'Nough said.

I drank a whole bottle of ouzo when I was 15. For those who don't know ouzo its a particularly powerful greek spirit that can destroy even the most hardened of drinkers let alone a teenager who had never touched a drop in his life. I had to receive an adrenaline shot. Three guesses where. Does that count?

Not really sure I get the context the joke was made in but ok.

I found this forum, went to register an account but apparently I already have one that hasn't been used. Must of been one I made ages ago but not bothered to follow through with. I have extremely high functioning aspergers which from what I gather is pretty rare. I've never met anyone else with the same variation of my condition. Mostly I just try and cover over it. Its not through any shame its just I'd rather people judged me for me. The only time I properly sought help with it was disastrous. I was seventeen and a moronic social worker sent me to this place where she said I'd meet people with the same condition. Now, I'm going to voice this as politically correctly as I can but have you ever been in a room full of people with the mental age of about six playing with their own excrement and getting a hard on over a kids program called "Lazy Town"? I wouldn't recommend it, it was among the most humiliating experiences of my entire life. I am not even comparable to that, the idea anyone would even attempt to even imply I was is insulting to say the least. So yes, that is the accumulative experience I posses of others with my condition. Don't get me wrong, not all of them were like that. There were three very depressed and socially awkward types there too. By all intents and purposes they seemed relatively decent and by far the most sentient individuals in the room. They looked like they had been forced to attend for quite some time. They confided in me that they had to live on an estate with those similar to the other occupants of the room. I expressed my sympathies. I decided very quickly I wasn't going to attend again. After that I tried college, I was doing well at first but eventually I couldn't take it anymore. Apparently I have agoraphobia and have had it for quite some time. I'm seeing a councillor about it right now called David Moat. I highly recommend him, really nice guy and an renowned expert when it comes to aspergers. Honestly, I'm really quite sociable when it comes to an isolated one on one situation but how often do those happen in the real world? I suppose I should be very grateful to have parents supportive enough to help with such things. I'm going to use some of my benefits to pay for a private tutor to teach me philosophy and english literature at an A level standard. I hold the vain hope of somehow being lucky and good enough to get a place in Cambridge University. I know right? Next I'll be asking for a goose that lays golden eggs. So, my situation: I'm 22, no qualifications of note aside from some very average GCSEs, high functioning aspergers, agoraphobia, 2 weeks away from starting A level tuition and with the vain hope of getting into Cambridge University. Heres some comic relief; Go nuts.