Are we scaring people away from the Neurodiversity movement?

In the many years I’ve been working at the intersection of neurodiversity and employment, I’ve seen some incredibly positive changes in the way we treat and nurture differences in the workplace. My very first experience of autism in the year 2000 was a volunteering assignment to “cure” an autistic person. The leaps and bounds we’ve made since then are amazing, and much of that progress has been championed and made possible by neurodivergent people advocating for themselves.

?That means there have been shifts in the language we use. When I started at the National Autistic Society in 2005, I was told we couldn’t say “autistic person”, however, now many autistic people choose identity-first language. We evolve with the information we’re given, and we respond to people’s individual preferences too. Recently, as a person with ADHD who also works in this field, I’ve been noticing some people within our community policing one another’s choice of language. ?

?For example, I saw someone discussing how they manage to overcome their ADHD, and they got into an argument with someone else who said that wasn’t possible. Maybe overcoming wasn’t the best way to put it, but he was just sharing how he manages some of the more difficult parts of his experience. While I will always have ADHD, I have found that exercising, sleeping well and eating more healthily does help to manage the negative impacts of my ADHD brain, while still keeping the positives, and people sharing those kinds of tips can be helpful.?

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I worry that, for people who don’t know anything about this world or are starting to question whether they’re neurodivergent, it can be off putting and scary to just see people nit-picking and policing one another. We may be putting people off from embracing our cause, or making it even harder for newcomers to embrace their neurodiversity. I spoke to Marianne Eloise a colleague of mine who is autistic, and she pointed out that if someone’s intention is good, they’re on our side, and we can gently teach them the right wording later. “We need to focus on tackling the factors affecting our community from the outside,” she added.

?Plus, if someone is neurodivergent, they might have difficulty expressing themselves through writing or speaking. I often find I use the wrong word or change the meaning of my sentences with my poor grammar! Everyone is different, and we shouldn’t punish them for not being able to convey exactly what they mean through one medium. Let’s focus on issues like the workplaces that don't know they have to change their interview questions for ND people, if we're in-fighting, we can’t put our energy into the positives. Not everyone can spend all day online learning. If we refocus our energy, we can make real change. All of this will change as well. The most important thing is, people's needs won’t change.

?Remember that we all started somewhere, and when in doubt, just reflect the wording back at someone that they use with you.