Preface

Assistant Professor in Critical Neurodiversity Studies Personal Chair in Developmental Psychology This book is about neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is a relatively new term, being coined in the 1990s by a community of autistic activists. Part of their idea was that, just as the ecosystem is enriched by biodiversity, so too is human society enriched by a diversity of ways of thinking. And just as biodiversity requires our collective effort to support and conserve, so too does neurodiversity. Based on this, these activists began to work towards a new civil rights and justice movement led by people with social and communication disabilities. They hoped this movement would advocate for social and legal reforms for autistic people as well as others whose sensory, cognitive, or neurological profiles set them apart from the norm. Since these early days, the movement has grown rapidly. Now it includes not just autistic people, but people with all kinds of disabilities and divergences around the globe. Neurodiversity advocates include people who identify as anything from bipolar to dyspraxic and everything in between. We can describe them as neurodivergent. As such, there is now a large and still-growing movement of loosely connected individuals and groups usually known simply as the neurodiversity movement. This movement precisely seeks to change the world in the kinds of ways those early advocates specified.