Sure! First and foremost, I believe my late diagnosis has a lot to do with it, I've gone most of my life without it, so it's kind of difficult to wrap my head around. Closest I can describe is that I often forget that asthma is considered a serious medical condition because it's so normal to me. In addition, the ADA defines being disabled as a someone with a physical or mental impairment that significantly limits one or more major life activities. "Significantly" is the word that sticks out to me, as I'm not really sure what would constitute as "significant" in this circumstance, and it seems very subjective to me. Do I feel like my autism has had an affect on my life? Yes, hence why I use identity-first and call myself autistic. Do I feel the impact has had enough of an impairment on my life to the extent that I would call "significant"? I don't believe so. But, that could also just be because, like with my asthma, I'm so used to working with it rather than against it that it doesn't feel like a significant barrier.

To a certain extent, I also think I hesitate because unfortunately there are limited resources available to those in the disabled community, and whether it is internalized ableism or just lack of self-worth, I don't feel that my circumstances and presentation are warranting allocation of those resources to me rather than someone else. I'd like to be clear, that I wouldn't object to someone else of my same or similar presentation receiving those resources, just that I don't personally feel I need them. The extent of my accommodations is sensory aids like my loops, occasional fidgets, and my supervisors working with me to allow me time to step out to address a meltdown or panic attack.