40 Big Ideas

Summary

Neurodiversity is about accepting differences in the way our brains work. The Neurodiversity Movement says that these differences are a natural part of being human and shouldn’t be treated as something that needs to be cured. This understanding helped the community see disability as more than something that helps us get support. It helps us understand that our community is a culture that shouldn’t be hidden away.

Growing up in the end of the century the conversation surrounding disabilities such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was fraught with the belief that if we worked hard enough to could cure whatever was wrong with our brains, when that didn’t work these kids were sfrom our peers and often had limited access to meaningful and challenging academic programing- And then the Neurodiversity Movement happened.

When the concept of neurodiversity, which recognizes and embraces neurological differences as natural variations of the human experience, emerged in the late 1990s, it shifted the focus from viewing neurological differences as deficits to acknowledging them as part of human biodiversity.

The term "neurodiversity" was coined by Australian sociologist Judy Singer. The neurodiversity movement aimed to change the narrative around conditions like autism, moving away from a focus on deficits and pathology towards a perspective that embraces diverse ways of thinking and experiencing the world. While rooted in the autistic rights movement, the concept of neurodiversity has expanded to encompass other neurological or developmental conditions, such as ADHD and learning disabilities- but more impactful is the way it has expanded the social attitude towards diversity in not just how brains work and think, but also how people exist.

As the movement brought together neurodiverse people to have conversations about life and living and society the way we talked about our experiences and disabilities shifted and we began to see not just the challenges but also the gifts. We started to frame the challenges through the social model of disability recognizing that the fault didn’t lie in who we are but rather in a society that is not designed for accessibility for all. In that discovery we began to find ways to increase collective access through attitude while waiting for a broader system change. The attitude shift meant that we started asking for what we needed and talking more about why those needs would meet the guidelines for reasonable accommodations- the biggest thing requested: accept us as we are, different doesn’t mean bad.

As this movement has gained momentum and broader societal understanding we have seen it normalize considerations around accessibility for all types of invisible disabilities including mental health, intellectual disabilities, processing disorders and more. It has opened up doors to conversations considering learning styles, sensory needs, communication differences and more.

The normalization of diversity in how we experience the world has shifted the view of disability from more than a collection of diagnosis that would qualify someone for extra help to a broader understanding that as a whole our community is a culture- we share values and traditions, norms and language and that the cumulative collection of our existence does not need to be eradicated or cured or hidden away, but rather there is so much to be learned from the way we live our lives and the resilience we have built as diverse and beautiful community. When we are welcomed accessibly into the world as a whole our community and culture makes everything better- and as a great Minnesota Senator once said: “We all do better, when we all do better”