The WHO still classifies it as a separate diagnosis, however.

In a way that's not definitive but they show signs that there's something unusual about them. See: "Ambiguous Disorder".

And just why does there suddenly need to be a Ranger for every single group there is? Why not a Ranger in a wheelchair? Or a cross dressing transgender Ranger? How about a Blind one? Or a deaf one? Or maybe a mentor with Alzheimer's? Once you start down this road, unless everyone is represented by a Ranger someone is going to be pissed. You don't need all of these things in what is now and has always been A CHILDRENS SHOW....

A blind ranger would be awesome for an animal set. Of course he'd have to be a bat.

We kind of had that with Master Swoop from Jungle Fury.

We did? I never watched JF. Saw clips and such, but never actually watched it. Cool.

I don't think having a Power Ranger character with an explicit mental disorder, like autism, should happen. Unfortunately, TV shows are really bad at accurate portrayals of disorders. In the case of autism, you either get retarded people like Dax, Gem and Gemma or antisocial super-geniuses like Doctor K. There never seems to be a realistic middle ground.
Give it a name, like for example autism, and the target audience, which in this case are young kids, might think everyone with autism is either a retard or an antisocial super-genius. And that is not something you want children to think after watching a TV-show.

Because, of course, it is absolutely impossible to portray someone with a mental disorder as sympathetic. Maybe if they took the effort, it could work well, but I do agree with you that they'd need to do the research to present it. And children already hate everyone unintentionally, so maybe it would help them understand what someone else is going through.

Can we watch the use of derogatory terms in this thread please? It's a sensitive topic for some as it is, so being mindful of what you're posting and the language you're using will go a long way.

Thank you, please continue.

I think one of the better examples of a disability appearing in Power Rangers was in the Power Rangers Zeo episode Trust In Me.
The episode featured Rocky showing pity to a blind woman, by offering to help her with every simple task, followed by her giving him the cold shoulder. The woman in question is never portrayed helpless, as she even gives a perfect Karate demonstration. As a result, she does not want to receive pity from others, since she considers herself as a fully functioning human being and wants to be treated as such.
The lesson Rocky learns in this episode is to not feel pity for people with disabilities, but treat them as equals, which I think is the right direction to go with this subject, should Power Rangers ever feature it.

But, the problem I feel with portraying mental disorders, such as autism, is that they are hard to portray accurately and in a way that children can understand. Blindness is easy to for children to understand, as it can simply be described as the absence of sight. The same goes for deafness; it is the absence of hearing.

From my point of view, there is no easy description of what autism really is. Even I, as someone having a mild case of autism, have a hard time giving people an exact definition of the disorder. In fact, many people 'suffering' from it don't display clear outward traits other people can easily link to autism. This makes it very hard for TV shows to portray it in a realistic way.

I don't think Power Rangers is the right series to handle such a delicate subject. Especially because the target audience comes to see heroes in spandex and giant robots fighting rubber monsters. And this is my final say about this subject.

I have been diagnosed with Autism. So I can understand this. You're more emotional, you cant focus very well, some of us run around like crazy idiots, and some of us are more creative then others.

Power Rangers could handle it offhandy, like not make it a focus of an episode.

And on the main subject, if there was a power ranger with Autism, it would be me.