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The neurodiversity movement

The neurodiversity movement is a social justice movement that seeks civil rights, equality, respect and inclusion for all neurodivergent people. Its ideas first developed in early autistic self-advocacy groups, but the movement includes a wide range of neurodivergent people and their allies.

What is the neurodiversity movement?

The ‘neurodiversity movement’ is a social justice movement that seeks civil rights, equality, respect and inclusion for all neurodivergent people. It started in autistic-self advocacy groups in the mid-90s, who connected through early internet forums and were inspired by other civil rights movements, notably the disability rights movement. 

The main aim of the movement is to end the discrimination neurodivergent people face in society. This includes fighting against the ‘pathologisation’ of neurodivergence, including autism, which means changing views in medical science and society more widely so that people understand neurodivergence as a difference, not a ‘deficit’ or ‘disorder’. 

Who is part of the neurodiversity movement? 

The movement is not a led by any single group or organisation. It is made up of individuals and groups who share the main aim of the movement, but who may have different views on certain topics and may take different actions. 

Ideas have developed within the movement through neurodivergent people discussing their lived experience, including experience of harmful ‘support’ strategies and discrimination they face in society. These ideas are the basis for the neurodiversity paradigm and the practice of neuro-affirmative support. For more information about this, visit our page Autism and neurodiversity.

"The Neurodiversity Movement began within the Autism Rights Movement, and there is still a great deal of overlap between the two movements. But the Neurodiversity Movement and the Autism Rights Movement are not one and the same. The most significant distinction between the two is that the Neurodiversity Movement seeks to be inclusive of all neurominorities, not just Autistics." 
– Nick Walker, Neurodiversity: some basic terms & definitions

“[I]t’s essential that we recognise that neurodiversity is an outgrowth of disability rights, and disability rights is an outgrowth of the civil rights movement.” 
– Ari Ne’eman, co-founder of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, Syracuse University Neurodiversity Symposium

 

What does the neurodiversity movement want?

The neurodiversity movement established and is guided by the principles of the neurodiversity paradigm (for information about this, visit our page Autism and neurodiversity). The movement wants these principles to be adopted across all of society, to bring an end to discrimination against neurodivergent people. 

Members of the neurodiversity movement generally advocate for: 

  • adjustments to support different forms and styles of communication
  • recognition that independence (being able to do things without support) and autonomy (making decisions about your own life) are different, and a person should still have choice even if they have high support needs
  • every person to have a good quality of life, whatever that looks like for them
  • the parents/carers of people with high support needs to be supported in society
  • reduced institutionalisation (people being forced live in places like mental health hospitals rather than in their community)
  • an end to harmful ‘treatments’, particularly for people with high support needs who are less likely to be given a choice. 

Different support for different neurodivergences 

The neurodiversity movement generally recognises that different neurodivergences can require different approaches to support. For example: 

  • attempts to ‘treat’ or ‘cure’ autism are generally rejected, because most autistic people see being autistic as central to who they are, not something they want to be ‘cured’ of (this does not mean they reject all support)
  • consensual treatment (treatment a person wants and has agreed to) of mental health problems is generally encouraged. 

Uncommon views 

Some members of the neurodiversity movement have expressed views that are not shared by most other members. These include rejecting all forms of treatment (including for mental health problems), and the suggestion that people with learning disabilities should be excluded from the definition of neurodiversity. 

Although these views are not common, they are often highlighted by critics of the movement – usually to suggest that the movement ignores or excludes people with the highest support needs. 

(In general, members of the movement show a deep commitment to inclusion; especially of people with high support needs, who they recognise as some of the most frequently excluded and mistreated people in society.)

"Depathologising autism — or any disability — is not about stripping lived realities from our understanding of that disability, or denying the full breadth and depth of narratives of those with lived experience, or refusing to engage with rhetoric of pain, suffering, treatment, or cure. What it is about is ridding autism, or disability in general, of the notion of inherent lack, brokenness, or defect. Recognising being autistic as who we are (identity) and how we exist in the world (experience, including negative, painful, and unwanted experiences) are not mutually exclusive or contradictory."
– Lydia X. Z. Brown, The neurodiversity movements needs its shoes off, and fists up

"We cannot make your autistic loved one non-disabled. But we can help make a future that has room for people like your child in it, complete with the rights, the access, and the supports they need to live their fullest life. We think that that is doable. We think that that is right." 
– Emily Paige Ballou, What the neurodiversity movement does – and doesn’t – offer

 

The origin and history of neurodiversity

The concept of neurodiversity was first described in the mid-1990s by members of autistic self-advocacy communities that emerged online when many people got access to the internet. 

The internet made it possible for people who were far away from each other and who wouldn’t normally meet to communicate about their shared interests and experience through email mailing lists and forums. 

Examples of early autistic self-advocacy communities include: 

  • ANI-L, an email mailing list started in 1994 and run by the Autism Network International (ANI), hosted by Syracuse University in New York State, USA. (One the founding members of ANI, Jim Sinclair, wrote the 1993 essay Don’t mourn for us, an influential text within autism self-advocacy and wider neurodiversity movement.)
  • InLv (short for ‘Independent living on the autistic spectrum’), an email mailing list and forum (the first run independently by and for autistic people) founded in 1996 by Martijn Dekker from the Netherlands. InLv quickly grew into an active online community, with members sharing their lived experience, providing peer support and discussing politics.

"A new idea came up in the group, based on the evidence and lived experience that autistic brains are wired differently from the mainstream on a fundamental level. Biological diversity of all kinds is essential to the survival of an ecosystem – so why should neurological diversity, which is one aspect of biological diversity, be any different? 

The objective fact that neurological diversity exists emerged as a strong argument for the acceptance of autistics and other neurological minorities as distinct classes of people among many, who have something valuable of their own to contribute, and who are as inherently worthy of equal rights as anyone." 
– Martijn Dekker, From exclusion to acceptance: independent living on the autistic spectrum

 

Who coined the term neurodiversity? 

The concept of neurodiversity originated in discussions between members of autistic self-advocacy groups. It is likely that neurodiversity was not the idea of a single person but developed through the sharing of ideas between multiple people. 

Martijn Dekker has reported a 1996 post in the InLv forum by Tony Langdon, which refers to the “neurological diversity of people". This may be the first expression of the concept. In a follow-up post, Langdon wrote “a lot of this ‘curing’ needs to be applied to society at large” (rather than to autistic people) – a key idea in the neurodiversity paradigm. 

The journalist Harvey Blume, who was a member of InLv, is often credited with popularising the concept of neurodiversity and autistic community through two mass media articles: Autistics are communicating in cyberspace, published in the New York Times in 1997, and Neurodiversity: on the neurological underpinnings of geekdom, published by the Atlantic in 1998. 

The sociologist Judy Singer was also a member of InLv. In 1998, she wrote both her undergraduate thesis and, later, a chapter in the book Disability Discourse on the topic of neurological diversity, citing many of the forum members and their contributions. 

Singer has frequently been cited as the person who coined the term neurodiversity and originated the concept, but people involved in autistic self-advocacy communities at the time dispute this, including Dekker. It is probably more accurate to say that Singer was the first use the word and describe the concept in an academic context. 

The neurodivergent activist Kassiane Asasumasu is credited with coining the terms ‘neurodivergent’ and ‘neurodivergence’ in 2000.

Examples of autism and neurodiversity activism


Early examples

"Autism is a way of being. It is pervasive; it [colours] every experience, every sensation, perception, thought, emotion, and encounter, every aspect of existence. It is not possible to separate the autism from the person – and if it were possible, the person you'd have left would not be the same person you started with." 
– Jim Sinclair, Don’t mourn for us (1993)

[A parody of autism research from the satirical website of a fictional research centre:] 
"Neurotypical syndrome is a neurobiological disorder characterised by preoccupation with social concerns, delusions of superiority, and obsession with conformity."
– muskie, Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical (‘ISNT’, 1998-2002)

Today

"I would like people to know that one of the hardest things about being neurodivergent is society’s intolerance and prejudice towards people who are different. The neurodivergent community has a lot in common with other marginalised groups, such as the LGBTQ community. When all is said and done, all we want is equality and to be treated with dignity and respect." 
– Siena Castellon, Founder of Neurodiversity Celebration Week, interview by Me.Decoded

"ASAN believes that the goal of autism advocacy should be a world in which autistic people enjoy equal access, rights, and opportunities. We work to empower autistic people across the world to take control of our own lives and the future of our common community, and seek to organise the autistic community to ensure our voices are heard in the national conversation about us. Nothing About Us, Without Us!"
– Autistic self-advocacy network, Our mission

Links, resources and article source

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