Being neurodivergent is a disability.

I have seen so many posts for Disability Pride Month across socials talk about “people who are neurodivergent or disabled”. It’s not either or – neurodivergent conditions are a disability.

As more people become aware of neurodiversity, it is increasingly becoming othered outside of the paradigm of disability. This is a problem.

When you “don’t see” neurodivergent conditions as a disability, you are creating a tiered system of disability.? A hierarchy of what disabilities are acceptable and which ones are not.

Let’s put it another way, by separating neurodiversity from disability you are saying, for example, ‘someone autistic isn’t as disabled as someone with cerebral palsy' and?‘someone with PTSD isn’t as disabled as someone who uses a wheelchair.’

Someone with cerebral palsy may struggle more with physical barriers than someone autistic. And they probably deal with more ablism just by existing because many can not mask or hide their disability the way someone autistic can. That doesn’t make the person with cerebral palsy more disabled, it just means you see their condition. Autistic people burn themselves out putting on a performance to make non-disabled people comfortable. Autistic people making you more comfortable just means the disability is being intentionally hidden from you because they are afraid of how you will respond and perceive them if they weren’t masking and mirroring you.

Same with the using a wheelchair vs PTSD example. You can see that wheelchair, ergo you have made a decision about the person on first sight. But you can’t see what someone with PTSD is struggling with at any given moment. In fact, many people who use wheelchairs – it’s just life and everything else is “normal” as long as their wheelchair is well maintained and they can roll on through their day. But that person with PTSD is often suppressing anxiety, sleeplessness, hypersensitivity, and on extra alert. You may not take notice of PTSD at all unless you see a service dog supporting the person. But even then, because someone with PTSD otherwise looks “normal”, they deal with barriers and accusations of their service dog not being real because “you don’t look disabled.”

But if that autistic person or person with PTSD flag either with their words or actions “hey, I’m overwhelmed and about to have a meltdown” – how likely are you to support them versus saying “oh just calm down everything is fine.” ?From firsthand experience – most people who do not struggle with a neurodivergent condition will say the latter. And then that person feels shame for their disability, for something they can't control. Thus reinforcing that we can not look or act disabled if we want to be accepted. Then you get to say that because we don’t look disabled, we’re not really disabled.

By saying neurodiversity is not a disability, it upholds the systemic barriers many struggle with. It means we do not gain access to the the accessibility supports we need to live our best lives and do our best work.

Image in the header is the Disability Pride Flag. The colours represent different conditions, with four of them (yellow, white, blue, green) all encompassing different areas of neurodivergent condition.

Red - physical disabilities

Yellow - cognitive and intellectual disabilities

White - invisible and undiagnosed disabilities

Blue - mental illness

Green - sensory perception disabilities

#DisabilityPrideMonth #Accessibility #Inclusion #Neurodiversity