The autism spectrum is frequently misrepresented. It is often imagined as a straight line: from “mild” to “severe”, from “high functioning” to “low functioning”, from “almost normal” to “very autistic”. People are placed somewhere along this line, and that placement is assumed to explain their abilities, needs, and potential.
This linear spectrum, while conveniently simple, and exceptionally useful to those who would use it against us, is tacitly incorrect, and overtly harmful.
The autism spectrum is not linear. It is spiky, dynamic, and deeply shaped by environment and wider ecosystem.
Why The Linear Spectrum Fails
A linear spectrum assumes that autism can be measured in a single direction, as if traits increase or decrease together. It reduces Autistic existence to a single dimension. In reality, Autistic people show uneven profiles across many domains at once. The experience of being Autistic is multidimensional and complex.
Someone may have advanced verbal ability and significant sensory sensitivity.
Strong analytical skills and limited energy for daily tasks.
High empathy and difficulty navigating social norms.
Periods of apparent independence followed by periods of profound support need.
These are not contradictions. They are the spectrum, in all it’s dynamic truth. Measured on individual domains a person may appear high or low functioning, but across the multitude of domains that Autistic people experience, their perceived ability (or lack thereof) would not be consistent in all dimensions.
A single line cannot capture this complexity. It flattens lived experience into a hierarchy of worth. Humans are creatures with variable skills, and to assume this is not.also true of Autistic people is to dehumanise us.
The Spectrum As A Spiky Profile
A more accurate way to understand the autism spectrum is as a spiky profile. Different areas of skill:
- Communication
- Sensory Processing
- Executive Function
- Emotional Regulation
- Motor Skills
- Attention
- Interoception
All of these vary independently. Peaks and valleys coexist in the same person. Crucially, these profiles are not static. They change with context, stress, safety, health, and support.
Autism is not something you have more or less of. It is something you experience differently under different sets of conditions.
Autism Is Dynamic, Not Fixed
One of the most overlooked aspects of the autism spectrum (or more specifically, Autistic experience) is how much it fluctuates.
An Autistic person may appear highly capable in a supportive environment and significantly disabled in a hostile one. This is often misread as inconsistency, manipulation, or lack of effort. In truth, it is reflective of a neurocognitive system responding to context.
This is where Luke Beardon’s formulation becomes essential. Sometimes known as “the golden equation”, it states the following:
Autism + Environment = Outcome
Autism does not determine outcome on its own. The environment, sensory, social, relational, institutional, plays an equal role. You cannot make an Autistic person less Autistic (although you can force them to conceal and mask it), however, change the environment, and the outcome changes.
The Bodymind As Environment
Environment does not stop at the skin. Autistic bodyminds (that is, a mind existing within a body) are environments in their own right. Sensory processing, interoception, energy regulation, trauma history, physical health, and emotional safety all shape what is possible in any given moment.
An Autistic person who is exhausted, in pain, overloaded, or masking is operating in a very different internal environment from one who is rested, regulated, and safe. The features of our bodily experience will affect our perceived support needs.
Support needs fluctuate not because autism changes, but because environments do.
Why Functioning Labels Do Harm
Linear thinking leads directly to functioning labels. These labels collapse spiky, dynamic profiles into fixed judgements. They are often used to decide who deserves support, who will be believed, and whose distress matters.
Someone described as “high functioning” may be denied support until they burn out. Someone described as “low functioning” may be denied autonomy and voice. Both are misread. Both are harmed.
Functioning is not a trait.
It is an outcome of a complex set of variables across many dimensions. The reality is that functioning labels are more closely tied to our economic value than to our lived experience.
Understanding Support Needs
A non-linear spectrum reframes support needs. Support is not about correcting deficits. It is about adjusting environments, external and internal, so that Autistic people can access their strengths without paying for them with exhaustion or harm.
This means recognising that:
- Support needs vary over time
- Capacity changes with stress and safety
- Independence in one area does not cancel need in another
- Not every struggle can be found rooted in autism, rather countless other external variables
Support is not a reward for struggling visibly. It should be an automatically provided foundation for wellbeing.
From Spectrum To Ecology
The autism spectrum makes more sense when understood as an ecology rather than a scale. A person exists within overlapping environments: sensory, social, cultural, economic, institutional, and bodily. Outcomes emerge from the interaction between these systems; the ecosystem.
This perspective shifts the question from: “What level of autism is this person?”
to: “What conditions allow this person to thrive?”
Why This Matters
How we understand the autism spectrum shapes policy, practice, and everyday interactions. A linear model justifies exclusion, hierarchy, and delayed support. A spiky, dynamic model demands flexibility, humility, and responsiveness.
Understanding autism means letting go of the idea that people can be ranked by how well they approximate a norm. The autism spectrum is not a ladder. It is a landscape.
And like any landscape, what you can do there depends not just on who you are, but on the conditions you are granted access to.