What "autistic spectrum" actually means

Last week, I wrote about the difference between a psychological trait and a neurological one, and why autism sits firmly in the second category. This week I want to address something that makes that distinction harder to see: a widespread misconception about what "spectrum" means in the context of autism. Most people hear "autism spectrum" and picture a line. At one end, severe autism. At the other, neurotypical. Somewhere in the middle, people like me: a little autistic, but mostly fine. The spectrum as a gradient, a dial you can turn up or down. That's not what it means. Here's an analogy that I find clarifying, using vision 👓. Most people have some degree of myopia. It's very common, it exists on a continuous scale, and crucially, it's fixable. Glasses, contact lenses, laser surgery. You correct the optics, the problem goes away. Myopia is a vertical spectrum: more or less of the same thing, with a clear correction available. Color blindness works differently. It's not that color bl