What is neurodiversity?

• Neurodiversity refers to the different ways we all think, feel and behave.
• Most people think, feel and behave in ways that society expects. These people are known as neurotypicals.
• Other people think, feel, and behave in ways different than society expects. These people are neurodivergent. They may have been given or identify with a diagnosis linked to this difference. Common examples include autism, ADHD, or a mental health label. But not every neurodivergent person has one of these labels.
• Society generally tells us that neurodivergence is a problem which needs to be fixed. The neurodiversity movement argues that these differences are a normal part of being human, so we should accept, include and support neurodivergent people.

Why are you talking about neurodiversity?

• There is a community of people who research or teach for a living. They are known as academics and they often work in universities. There is a special culture associated with academics and their students, known as academia.
• Academics are expected to work very hard. How hard they work is measured by how many times they write or talk about their research. Academics sometimes compete with each other over who writes and talks the most, which makes them work even harder.
• Neurodivergent people in academia face a lot of extra challenges. For example, they might behave in ways that neurotypicals do not expect. This can mean that the neurotypicals do not listen to them when they talk about their research.
• We think that the neurodiversity movement can help to make academia better for everyone, by promoting acceptance, inclusion and support for anyone that needs it. - We are doing our best to advertise the benefits of the neurodiversity movement.

How can I learn more?

We are developing a lot of resources about neurodiversity in academia. Right now, these are mostly aimed at academics, so they can be a bit complicated or written using technical terms. You are welcome to read them and share them regardless!

What is Neurodiversity?

A lack of diversity, equity and inclusion is bad for scholarship. Systemic barriers (such as hiding articles behind paywalls or geographical restrictions on conferences) prevent potential researchers with less access to resources from taking part in the research process. This limits the breadth of scientific progress, as a small and relatively homogenous group dictates which research questions are asked. Issues of diversity, equity and inclusion also arise within research which focuses on human research. A homogenous sample can lead to results which do not generalise across social groups - or worse, interventions which actively harm certain groups. So far, the majority of diversity, equity and inclusion work in open scholarship has focused on gender, ethnic/racial, and geographical disparities. However, issues linked to disability remain relatively under-discussed. At Team Neurodiversity, we hope to broaden these conversations to include and support the neurodiversity movement.

Neurodiversity refers to non-pathological variation in the human brain regarding movement, sociability, learning, attention, mood, and other mental functions at a group level (Singer, 2017). The neurological majority are known as neurotypical, while individuals who differ from this majority are referred to as neurodivergent. These differences can be present from birth (e.g. developmental or learning differences), or acquired during one’s life (e.g. due to an accident or medical condition such as a stroke). Neurodivergent individuals may have a diagnostic or identity label attached to their difference (such as autistic, ADHD or a mental health label), but this is not always the case.

The neurodiversity movement advocates for acceptance and inclusion of neurodivergent individuals in a way which emphasises their strengths and rights to autonomy and support. This is in opposition to the medical model, which treats neurodivergence as a defect or deficit which needs to be normalized, cured, and eliminated. For example, imagine an autistic person who does not like to be hugged. The medical model may consider this a product of deficits in social communication and sensory processing, whereas the neurodiversity perspective would emphasise the need to respect the individual’s preferences regarding being hugged.

Neurodiversity in Academia

At present, human sciences such as Psychology and Biomedicine tend to adopt the medical model of neurodiversity. This means that a large amount of research centres around “deficits”, treats neurodivergent people as an inferior group to neurotypicals, or excludes them from samples altogether. The opinions of neurodivergent communities are rarely included in research about them, and we believe this needs to change. We, Team Neurodiversity, do not argue that deficits-based research is pointless! This research has formed the foundations for neurotypical individuals to understand the challenges that we neurodivergent adults encounter as a result of our neurological differences. Instead, we advocate for academics, clinicians, researchers and speech-language therapists to reframe their framework in interpreting and discussing our challenges and impairments. We require a framework that promotes humility, compassion, respect and genuine impartiality. This is only possible with a diversity of minds and the inclusion of specific neurodiverse groups.

In our experiences, neurodivergent researchers also face unique challenges which are rarely acknowledged or addressed. The culture of academia emphasises productivity, with recruitment and promotion requirements emphasising metrics such as number of publications and amount of grant money awarded. Hyper-productivity creates wellbeing challenges for many people in the sector, but especially for neurodivergent academics who may express their productivity in different ways, or face additional barriers to completing these outputs. This in turn can result in neurotypicals labelling neurodivergent academics as “lazy” or “under-achievers”. For example, academia relies heavily on oral communication modalities. Academics are expected to present their work using the spoken word. This creates barriers for individuals who use other communication modalities (e.g. augmented communication, sign language), whose oral communication or body language differ in some way (e.g. stammering, less eye contact), or who struggle to process auditory input (e.g. due to sensory difficulties; although the use of live captioning is increasing). Expanding the notion of “success” in academia to include a broad and more flexible range of work would support neurodivergent academics, but would also benefit a range of neurotypical academics.

Neurodiversity and Open Scholarship

Open scholarship refers to the idea that knowledge of all kinds should be openly shared, transparent, rigorous, reproducible, replicable, accumulative, inclusive, and allow for all knowledge systems. This applies to how knowledge is accumulated (via “open science” practices, such as free sharing of materials and data) and how knowledge is shared (e.g. through teaching and science communication practices).

We believe that the neurodiversity and open scholarship movements share fundamental principles - both are rooted in social justice, and share firm commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. Furthermore, we believe that these movements can complement and progress each other.

We think that the neurodiversity movement can improve open scholarship by:

• Highlighting the barriers and challenges which neurodivergent academics face, how neurodivergence intersects with other identities, and potential solutions which dismantle systemic issues to make academia more inclusive and accessible for all.
• Promoting diversity of moral reasoning, cognitive biases, information processing, social norms and depth/breadth of research interests among academics - all of which influence the rigour and diversity of scientific processes.

Likewise, open scholarship can benefit the neurodiversity movement by:

• Providing open and accessible learning resources, which particularly benefit people who do not “fit the system” or do not have the opportunity to access closed scholarship.
• Ensuring that research on neurodiversity topics is high quality - rigorous, reproducible, replicable, generalisable, and accumulative.
• Making research and resulting policy openly available to the people it affects.

Mutual benefits include:

• Bringing neurodivergent voices into conversations of diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice within academia, in a way which promotes strengths as well as addressing difficulties.
• Abolishing barriers to education, facilitating career progression, and providing more opportunities for anyone to enter academia.
• A move to emancipatory and participatory research methods, which centre on co-creation and include neurodivergent individuals in the whole research process (“nothing about us without us”, from conception to publication).

A more in-depth discussion of the link between open scholarship and neurodiversity is available in our position statement. This is a longer document which outlines in-depth how neurodiversity links to open scholarship.