The neurodiversity paradigm provides a philosophical foundation for the activism of the Neurodiversity Movement, but the two aren’t the same. For instance, there are people working on developing inclusive education strategies based on the neurodiversity paradigm, who don’t identify as social justice activists or as part of the Neurodiversity Movement. Example of Correct Usage:

I’m a professor at California Institute of Integral Studies, where I teach in the undergraduate Psychology program. My esteemed colleague Dora M. Raymaker conducted this extensive interview with me on the neurodiversity paradigm, the state of neurodiversity scholarship, and where it might all be headed. Published in the journal Autism in Adulthood in 2021. It’s also possible to be neurodivergent without being a member of a neurominority group. Examples include people with acquired traumatic brain injuries, and people who have altered their own neurocognitive functioning through extensive use of psychedelic drugs. Feminist new materialist Rosi Braidotti calls for us to “reassert the dynamic nature of thinking”, “privilege change and motion over stability” (Braidotti, 2011, 7 & 29). As a Deleuzian, Braidotti thinks in terms of “becomings”, describing the body as a “threshold of transformations” and “a surface of intensities”, “an affective field in interaction with others” (Braidotti, 2012, 34). Dynamic thinking, change and motion, transformations, intensities and affects – all of this suggests an affirmative relationship with instability. If something is unstable it is also unfixed and unmoored, not engaged in reproducing the same white/masculine/abled thinking. The correct word here would be neurodivergence, rather than neurodiversity. An individual, by definition, cannot be “diverse” or “have diversity.”

Another crucial step is to produce more and more literature, art, educational material, and entertainment that decenters the neurotypical perspective and the neurotypical gaze––in other words, work which not only is grounded in non-neuronormative perspectives, but also refuses to assume that the default reader or viewer is neurotypical. Autigender” is a term that some autistic people use to describe their relationship with gender. Specifically, it means that they feel that their autism affects the way they perceive and feel about gender. There is no such thing as a “neurodiverse individual.” The correct term is “ neurodivergent individual.” An individual can diverge, but an individual cannot be diverse.

So, as a public service, I’m posting this list of a few key neurodiversity-related terms, their meanings and proper usage, and the ways in which I most commonly see them misused. NEURODIVERSITY What It Means: Specifically, gender is a social construct. The primary deficit of autism includes difficulties interpreting and understanding social constructions. This means that we have a disability that inherently makes understanding gender part of our disability. The early essays were flawed and frustrating to read, and I am disappointed that they were published without being edited significantly or rewritten. Walker instead writes an introduction instructing readers to look for any 'contradictions' themselves, and assume that any later argument takes precedence. I'm uncomfortable with this evasion of responsibility for what she's publishing, and I don't think this caveat will prevent harm caused by inadequately considered texts, given that they're intended to occupy the privileged position of teaching material. This group is for people who identify as both queer and ND (neurodivergent).” NEUROTYPICAL, or NT What It Means: A neuroqueer individual is any individual whose identity, selfhood, gender performance, and/or neurocognitive style have in some way been shaped by their engagement in practices of neuroqueering, regardless of what gender, sexual orientation, or style of neurocognitive functioning they may have been born with.queer as not about who you’re having sex with, that can be a dimension of it, but queer as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.” bell hooks