I see your point hyke and I do very much like the idea of "uniting" rather than dividing autism. Highlighting our divisions is a tactic often used by those who wish to undermine the autistic rights movements.
My concern is what will happen to those people whose diagnosis (which many of them have had to fight for) is Asperger Syndrome? Will their support providers withdraw provision for people with the diagnosis on the basis that "your condition doesn't exist"?
I know from my advocacy experience that statutory services are
very reluctant to provide support for people with AS - in some cases it has required legal action. There seems to be a misconception among some circles that people with AS don't genuinely have support needs and certainly cannot be considered disabled.
I am very concerned that if AS is excluded from the DSM then statutory services will withdraw support from people with AS regardless of how significant their support needs are (and I know people with AS who have substantial support needs).
The simple solution could be to get people re-diagnosed as autistic - but bearing in mind how difficult it is to get a diagnosis in the first place, how feasible is it that they will be able to get a re-diagnosis? The diagnosticians that are out there are already inundated - they may well feel that they have no choice to turn down people who already have a diagnosis and are seeing re-classification to access support.
While I do think that uniting people under the label "autism" is a good idea, I'm worried about how this could be used and manipulated by those agencies who care about saving money and nothing else.
btw, another article is
http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2009/11/ ... -dsm/6025/