Neurodiversity

The neurodiversity paradigm is a framework for understanding human brain function that considers the diversity within sensory processing, motor abilities, social comfort, cognition, and focus as neurobiological differences. This diversity falls on a spectrum of neurocognitive differences. The neurodiversity movement views autism and other neurodivergences as a natural part of human neurological diversity—not diseases or disorders, just "difference[s]".

Neurodivergences include autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, developmental prosopagnosia, developmental speech disorders, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysnomia, intellectual disability, obsessive–compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, sensory processing disorder, synesthesia, and Tourette syndrome.

The neurodiversity movement started in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the start of Autism Network International. Much of the correspondence that led to the formation of the movement happened over autism conferences, namely the autistic-led Autreat, penpal lists, and Usenet. The framework grew out of the disability rights movement and builds on the social model of disability, arguing that disability partly arises from societal barriers and person-environment mismatch (e.g. the double empathy problem theory by Damian Milton), rather than attributing disability purely to inherent deficits. It instead situates human cognitive variation in the context of biodiversity and the politics of minority groups. Some neurodiversity advocates and researchers, including Judy Singer and Patrick Dwyer, argue that the neurodiversity paradigm is the middle ground between a strong medical model and a strong social model.

Neurodivergent individuals face unique challenges in education, in their social lives, and in the workplace. The efficacy of accessibility and support programs in career development and higher education differs from individual to individual. Social media has introduced a platform where neurodiversity awareness and support has emerged, further promoting the neurodiversity movement.

The neurodiversity paradigm has been controversial among disability advocates, especially proponents of the medical model of autism, with opponents arguing it risks downplaying the challenges associated with some disabilities (e.g., in those requiring little support becoming representative of the challenges caused by the disability, thereby making it more difficult to seek desired treatment), and that it calls for the acceptance of things some wish to be treated for. In recent years, to address these concerns, some neurodiversity advocates and researchers have attempted to reconcile what they consider different seemingly contradictory but arguably partially compatible perspectives. Some researchers, such as Patrick Dwyer, Ari Ne'eman and Sven Bölte, have advocated for mixed, integrative or combined approaches that involve both neurodiversity approaches and biomedical approaches, for example teaching functional communication (whether verbal or nonverbal) and treating self-injurious behaviors or co-occurring conditions like epilepsy and depression with biomedical approaches.