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What is it?
What is it?
While there are different views on what neurodiversity means, the neurodiversity movement generally promotes human rights, dignity, and social change for neurodivergent people.
It challenges deficit-based narratives, framing neurodivergence as a natural and valuable form of human variation.
The neurodiversity movement emerged from the autistic community in the early 1990s and has since grown to include a wide range of neurodivergent voices and allies.
Why is it important?
Why is it important?
Our research examines how language, identity, and societal narratives shape autistic and neurodivergent experiences.
This includes advocating for anti-ableist language in research and practice, amplifying autistic needs (including autistic people with learning disabilities, non-speaking autistic people, and autistic parents of autistic people), and exploring the tensions and shared goals within the wider autism community. We also investigate how neurodiversity-informed approaches can lead to more inclusive education, policy, and support systems.
By combining community insights with scientific practices, we aim to shift public understanding and professional practice toward respectful, inclusive, and evidence-based approaches to neurodivergence.
Resources
Resources
To use anti-ableist language
To use anti-ableist language
Read this paper on Avoiding Ableist Language, which explains and supports more neurodiversity-affirming versus pathologising approaches to thinking about and using language toward autistic people. It offers a practical table of potentially problematic terms and suggested alternatives.
Read a follow-up paper with suggestions for school-based practitioners to unpack ableist language.
Read this review here with recommendations for clinicians and researchers on how to communicate and strengthen their interactions with the autistic people in their lives.
To learn about neurodiversity
To learn about neurodiversity
This letter explains the origins of the neurodiversity concept and theory, clarifying they were developed collectively.
This free book covers the history of the autism rights branch of the neurodiversity movement, featuring 19 chapters from 21 contributors on the frontlines of neurodiversity activism.
This paper analyses neurodivergent researchers' understandings of what the neurodiversity movement is and what it should aim to do, revealing differences and overlaps.
This study finds overlaps and differences in the autism community's attitudes toward neurodiversity, including understanding of neurodiversity and the neurodiversity movement.
To support open research and society
To support open research and society
Read this paper by the Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training's (FORRT's) Neurodiversity Team, which explains how open research and teaching promote fairness, equity, and accessibility. It illustrates the privileges academics have and how to support teaching and learning that aspires to meet all needs.
Check out this FORRT piece about including neurodivergent people in open scholarship, which may particularly suit those needing a quicker read.
Read this FORRT manuscript that applies open scholarship to higher education regarding autistic people, both for teaching and training in research.
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