“Camouflage” is defined as a combination of masking — hiding behaviours that mark one as different — and compensating — using conscious or unconscious strategies to adapt to a specific environment (Hull et al. 2017). The previous post on Camouflage and Autism (1) established that camouflage and masking are not exclusively autistic. They may be useful social tools for strengthening relationships and navigating different contexts, rather than merely harmful attempts to “pass” (

Autism is real. Disability is real. Support can be essential, sometimes life-changing, and sometimes the difference between exclusion and participation. But it does not follow that a diagnosis should become the organising principle of a person’s entire identity, or that every difficulty, preference, gift, habit, wound, achievement and failure should be interpreted through one label. In some ways, the past may have been easier – not because society was kinder or more enlighten