Why Neurodiversity Is Not A Superpower and People Should Stop Claiming It Is
A Neurodiversity Celebration Week Reflection From An ADHD Writer
This week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week. I would ordinarily plan to craft a piece that would focus on the positives of being a neurodivergent individual.
I don’t want to write a negative article bitching about all the views expressed that I don’t share. But there is this one perspective that grinds my gears. Worse, I have seen it repeated so much recently that I am choosing to raise my head over the parapet.
What’s Neurodiversity?
Before I dive in, it’s probably best to get two key terms straight.
The first is neurodiversity. This word was first used in 1997 by an autistic sociologist, Judy Singer. To be clear, neurodiversity is everyone. It includes all of us. Be aware that this definition of Singer’s contains two categories. One is neurotypical. The other is neurodivergent.
Neurotypicals
A neurotypical person is someone who has a brain that processes their experience of the world in a way that would be shared by the majority. It’s therefore considered to be the typical functioning of the brain.
