What is neurodiversity?
According to the Thinking Person's Guide to Autism, neurodiversity is the idea that people matter and have rights, regardless of how their brains work.
Neurodiversity includes people with ADHD, intellectual disability, mental illness, down syndrome, dementia, traumatic brain injuries, and many others, as well as autistic people.
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It’s also useful to know what the terms “neurodiversity” and “neurodiversity movement” mean.
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Neurodiversity is about understanding and accepting brain-based disability. People who have brain-based disabilities are “neurodivergent.”
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The neurodiversity movement is about supporting neurodivergent people’s rights and value as human beings. It is mostly led by autistic people.
Books
Here are some books we recommend on the topic of autism and neurodiversity.
Unmasking Autism
by Dr. Devon Price
A deep dive into the spectrum of Autistic experience and the phenomenon of masked Autism, giving individuals the tools to safely uncover their true selves while broadening society’s narrow understanding of neurodiversity.
Neurotribes
by Steve Silberman
A book by Steve Silberman that discusses autism and neurodiversity from historic, scientific, and advocacy-based perspectives.
The Reason I Jump
by Naoki Higashida
The Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism is a biography attributed to Naoki Higashida, a nonverbal autistic person from Japan.