Comment by michaelt
1 day ago
If the public face of autism is someone who needs no support or accommodations and is in fact very successful - people will understandably be confused when someone with the same diagnosis needs substantial support.
1 day ago
If the public face of autism is someone who needs no support or accommodations and is in fact very successful - people will understandably be confused when someone with the same diagnosis needs substantial support.
In my opinion, people need to learn - and in many things, already know - that things have scale. For example, with "pain": a bruise, cavities in teeth, kidney stones, migraines all hurt, but the level of effect on someone's life is vastly different.
Also, people have no problem minimizing the things as well, where pain again is a good example. In many situations, if it cannot be seen, secondary parties easily disregard it.
So, in conclusion, this confusion with the autism levels should not be a problem.
I assume that you don't have direct experience with autism? Success is a very misleading criterion. Even the very successful autistic people often suffer from significant distress. Level 1 autism (the most independent one), is also listed as requiring help. They too need accommodations - but it might be different from what you imagine. And their life situation can change drastically and dramatically at any stage.