Towards Aligned, Responsive, and Rigorous Appraisal of Neurodiversity Affirming Mental Health Research: The Neurodiversity Appraisal Tool ( NeuDAT )

The concept of neurodiversity has gained rapid scholarly, clinical, and broad community momentum. This includes the inclusion of understanding neurodiversity approaches as a new mandated competency for Australian psychologists to gain and maintain registration to practice. Consensus regarding the core conceptual features and effective application of neurodiversity affirming principles in research is evolving, and the field lacks a standardized tool to guide the interpretation, appraisal, and assessment of neurodiversity affirming mental health research. This includes moving beyond narrow Western ontologies of neurodiversity that often prevail in contemporary scholarship. Moreover, policymakers require guidance on the creation of inclusive policies that are aligned with neurodiversity-affirming best practices, which include trauma-informed care and commitment to cultural responsivity. Above all, it is imperative that neurodivergent people and communities continuously benefit from, shape the priorities of, and remain centralized. This includes ensuring neurodiversity affirming approaches do not reinforce colonial assumptions about independence, productivity, and normative functioning. In this Community Perspective , we draw upon our collective researcher-clinician-lived-experience expertise to synthesize current neurodiversity conceptual evidence and distil key principles for the application to mental health research. The resulting Neurodiversity Appraisal Tool ( NeuDAT ) is a qualitative instrument to guide clinicians, educators, policymakers, researchers, and other evidence consumers in appraising neurodiversity research.