Neurodivergent

Neurodivergent

(adjective)

A neurodivergent person has a neurotype that is systemically marginalized. The concept of neurodiversity and neurotypes was created in 1998 by autistic sociologist Judy Singer. This was to push back against the standard medicalization that disabled people face with any brain functioning difference. The neurodiverse community includes people who have disabilities and differences in their thoughts, behaviors, mood, memory, ability to socialize as expected, and other brain functions. Several recognized types of neurodiversity include autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, epilepsy, hyperlexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia, bipolar, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and Tourette syndrome (TS), but there are many other neurodivergent people too.

Changing the ways we talk about these disabilities and shifting from the medical model to the social model of disability has been an important part of the push for human rights for disabled people. Like gender, there are nearly infinite potential neuro-differences. Neurotypical and neurodivergent carry no judgement in and of itself— they are purely descriptive terms.

e.g. Ella went to their other neurodivergent friends to strategize how to ask for accommodations for ADHD in their work setting.

Return to the Index.

Back to the Medical Terms Guided Tour.