Shannon Des Roches Rosa
www.squidalicious.com

Steve Silberman’s NeuroTribes

is a large, densely packed book about autism’s past, present, and
future. I found myself overwhelmed by the
amount of information contained in each individual paragraph, in
considering how much research and synthesis it took to create those
paragraphs — and in knowing
that NeuroTribes’s information matters so much, while acknowledging my kind of brain can’t possibly retain it all. 

It doesn’t surprise me, then, when other
people have trouble remembering every important point in NeuroTribes, because the book is an 500-page information tsunami. Due to those info overload risks, however, some of NeuroTribes’s themes need to be repeated more
than once or twice for people to get them right. 

One theme that needs more emphasis is NeuroTribes’ clarification about neurodiversity: The term is not limited to autistic people who communicate independently, or indeed only to autistic people. 

Neurodiversity is the full range of human
neurological experiences. That means you, your loved ones, and every other person on this planet is included in neurodiversity. And that means the term ‘neurodiversity’ is not only not a synonym for Asperger’s syndrome, it is also not a synonym for all
diagnosis-worthy brain wirings, be they bipolar, ADHD, dyslexia, clinical
depression, OCD — or, you know, autism. 

220px-autism_spectrum_infinity_awareness_symbol-svg_-9672508
A Neurodiversity Symbol

source: Wikimedia Commons

[image: a rainbow-hued infinity symbol]

When you’re referring to
brains that need support and accommodation, then you’re talking about neurodivergence, not merely neurodiversity.
If you’re talking about your own, or another’s, individual differently-wired brain, then the relevant term is neurodivergent. (Nick
Walker wrote a go-to terminology briefing on neurodiversity and related terms, and I recommend it to anyone compelled to write on the topic.)

It follows that the opposite of neurodivergent, which is ‘neurotypical’ or ‘NT’,
also includes more than non-autistic people — even though NT is
sometimes used as shorthand by authors with definitive writings on neurodiversity. 

And that means that if you mean ‘non-autistic,’ you should say “non-autistic,” and not “neurotypical,” or “NT.” (Another word for non-autistic is ‘allistic,’ and people I respect have good reasons for using allistic instead of non-autistic, but I like Mel Baggs’s explanation as to why non-autistic is preferable.)

People also tend to mistakenly conflate the term ‘neurodiversity’ and the term ‘neurodiversity movement.’ According
to Nick Walker, “The Neurodiversity Movement is a social justice
movement that seeks civil rights, equality, respect, and full societal
inclusion for the neurodivergent.” So when people get pissy and write
things like “neurodiversity is evil,” they are not merely letting their ignorance
flags fly on more than one frequency, they are not only being hateful — they are also flat-out incorrect. (Quixotic self-appointed neurodiversity foes will get their own article, later.)

Back to NeuroTribes: Silberman
mentions that the neurodiversity movement includes more than autistic
people at least twice, once in the development of the very term ‘neurodiversity,’ based on the dynamics of InLv, an early autistic culture
mailing list:

“People
with dyslexia, ADHD, dyscalculia, and myriad other conditions
(christened ‘Cousins’ in the early days of ANI [Autism Network International]) were also welcome to
join the list.
The collective ethos of
InLv, said writer and list member Harvey Blume in the New York Times in 1997, was ‘neurological pluralism.’

And again in the introduction:

“One
of the most promising developments since the publication of
[Silberman’s 2001 Wired article] “The Geek Syndrome” has been the
emergence of the concept of neurodiversity: the notion that conditions
like autism, dyslexia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) should be regarded as naturally occurring cognitive variations
with distinctive strengths that have contributed to the evolution of
technology and culture, rather than mere checklists of deficits and
dysfunctions.”

I am glad Mr. Silberman wrote those two passages. I am highlighting them in the hope that more ‘cousins’ witnessing the positive press swirling around NeuroTribes and the concept of neurodiversity will understand the neurodiversity movement includes them, even if they’re not autistic.

As for using the proper terminology, well, that can take practice and, for some (ahem) the occasional refresher — even for those to whom the terms personally apply. In most cases, if your obvious goal is to be welcoming and inclusive, and to highlight the needs of neurodivergent and autistic people and/or amplify such voices, folks usually will cut you slack. Unless the specifics of their own personality or neurodivergent nature requires them to address the misuse of terminology first and foremost. And that’s OK, and to be expected, if we’re truly working towards understanding and accepting neurodivergence and neurodiversity.