Neurodiversity as Politics
This paper ‘Neurodiversity as Politics’ caught my eye and has been the subject of much thought and reflection in recent days in the office.
Setting aside its interesting identification of the Neurotypical privilege vs the minority Neurodiverse community, it draws a clear focus on the ever growing (and it is now very large) neurodiverse community – which in itself is defining for itself what neurodiversity means, and this paper identifies key factional issues that are, being both, advanced by; and being inclusive of, the strong activist population.
Neurodiversity never was a ‘medical issue’ alone, it is very much a political issue, and the divergent (forgive the pun) definitions of neurodiversity which are contemporaneously establishing themselves – within neurodiversity and neurodivergence. While this excellent paper highlights the different groups well – I am reminded of Dr Steve Shores words “If you’ve met one individual with autism, you’ve met one individual with autism” – there is no one set of answers, and certainly no simple answers.
You can download the PDF here.
