When we think about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, the first areas that come to mind are usually race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. And while some organizations are starting to notice, I would argue that overall neurodiversity as part of their DEI initiatives currently lags far behind. There are many factors contributing to this but the two factors I’ve witnessed the most were, lack of awareness and stigma.
Awareness
More than anything, I notice a lack of awareness to the term within different types of organizations.
Before we get to far, I want to acknowledge the paradigm of neurodiversity, I address this under another post, I encourage you to give it a read.
So what exactly is Neurodiversity?
Neurodiversity is a term used to describe the natural variety of human neurocognitive abilities. Neurodiversity, Neurodivergence, or Neurovariance, refers to the variations in the human brain and cognition.
Many associate Neurodiversity with ASD because the concept was embraced early on by individuals with autism/autistic individuals, (if you are new to disability inclusive language, the Person First vs Identity First Language post cam be insightful). The term was later broadened to other neurodevelopmental conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), developmental speech disorders, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysnomia, intellectual disability and Tourette syndrome.
Neurodiversity recognizes that everyone has differences in how we learn and function. These differences tend to be me more pronounced for some of us. Even though most of us are familiar with someone or someone with a personal connection to one of these neurodevelopmental and/or neuropsychiatric conditions, we don’t always realize just how often we interact with them.
Stigmatization
This one is really close to home and one you will hear more in posts to come. Stigma is defined as a mark of infamy or disgrace and is something that prevents many from self-disclosure at a place of education or employment.
Stigmas seeps into many, if not all aspect of life, some begin as early as childhood and can stay with us through our adolescence years, and even well into the spaces we occupy today as adults.
Society and media have done an exceptional job of telling us, what jobs we are good at, and where we fit into society, that it’s easy to see how we conform to limit believes when it come to the spaces in which we can exist and thrive Add in anxiety around unconscious bias, and exclusion from social groups and employment, it’s even easier to understand why self-disclosure can be so intimidating, which in turn prevents many from asking for basic accommodations, create pressure to mask, and impacts overall mental health.
We should move away from fitting individuals into a box and simply recognize the spectrum in which humans, neurodivergent or not, operate.
As you may have notice, these two factors really work against each other and why here at Neurodiversity Coalition Network, we aim to advocate for neurodiversity acceptance, equality and inclusion being part of post-secondary education environments and workspaces DEI initiatives.
This is just the start...
Change begins with a conversation, but we recognize that that alone will not address the lack of issue if inclusivity. It's this believe that lead us to choose coalition as part of our name. We want to help organizations create a safe and open culture, where needs can be explored free of judgement.
In doing so organizations can provide a platform for more balanced environments within their schools or workspace, while improving the lives of so many individuals.
Is your school or organization including Neurodiversity in their DEI efforts? If not, I encourage you to open up the conversation.
Till next time, JC @ NCN
Comentários