# Neurodiversity Movement

Welcome to the Neurodiversity Movement learning resource! This is a project-under-construction aimed at teaching all interested parties about the history, aims, and viewpoints of the Neurodiversity Movement, a branch of the Disability Rights Movement. At the moment, very little of the course is completed. Any input and assistance in expanding this project is greatly appreciated.
This project is the brainchild of the user Luai_Lashire, who is an active participant in the Neurodiversity Movement.
Students participating in this learning project and users who wish to contribute should sign their names below in the segment labeled "Participants". We can all learn from each other. Feel free to make comments on the discussion page about anything you learn, here or elsewhere, about Neurodiversity, or to ask questions. It is our hope that the talk page can provide a medium for class discussion of the serious issues involved in this topic.
NEW The first section has been updated and now features more information on the subject of neurotypes, as well as a section for discussion. Please join in- part of the goal of this class is for students to learn from each other through discussion.
There is also a new place to go to discuss news articles that are related to the topics of this resource.

## Course Goals

By the end of this course, students should have a thorough understanding of the aims and viewpoints espoused by the Neurodiversity movement, understand the concepts introduced by the movement, and have developed their own viewpoint of the issues faced by disabled persons. It is our further hope that by the end of this course, students will have the knowledge and desire to participate in activism.

## Course Outline

Very little of the course is written yet, but here is the proposed outline:

### Section 1: The Basics

* What is a Neurotype?
* The Base Precepts
** Diversity of Neurology
** Celebrate Us, Don’t Cure Us
** Accommodation

### Section 2: A History Of Abuse

* Quack Cures And Their Dangers
* Twisted Therapies
** “It’s The Only Way”
** The JRC (see this article)
* Mercy Murders

### Section 3: Controversies Within

* Disability vs. “Way of life”
* The Role of NTs
** Examining the historical usage of the term NT.
** Meanings of the NT concept.
* Separatism vs. Integration
** Fantasies Of Escape: The Island, The Moon Colony, And More
** The Benefits of Inclusion

### Section 4: Causes And Cures

* Introduction: The ‘Double Standard’ & Parents In Denial
* The Mercury Theory
** Andrew Wakefield’s Falsified ‘Science’
** Chelation Therapy
** The Autism Omnibus Hearings
* The Genetic Evidence
* Fears of a ‘Genocide’
* The Role of "Charities"

### Section 5: Labels and Language

* Why language matters
* Inaccuracies reinforce stigma
* Presenting the positive

### Section 6: History Of The Movement

* The Disability Rights Movement
* Branching Off
* Aspies For Freedom Is Born
* Spreading Awareness: Protests, Petitions, And Publicity

### Section 7: Goals

* Workplace Accommodation
* Proper Education
* Supports
* Understanding and Acceptance

### More material that may get included(or not) into sections

This is the section where you can make subsections of material you'd like to add to this learning resource.

#### Section about interaction with active communities on the internet

How about a section regarding interaction with existing communities that are active at the moment you are interacting with this page? This section could also evaluate best practices when interacting with online communities so that researchers show the proper respect for the people at the communities. Should researchers first introduce themselves or just mention the topics that they want to bring up?
If you know of any community on the internet where it is possible to interact and where it is also welcome to interact about the topic concept of "neurodiversity" then please add to this resource.
These communities on reddit could potentially serve as places to interact with people who are part of or have feedback about the neurodiversity movement, these communities could be listed here:
* Reddit community "r/neurodiversity" - subreddit /r/neurodiversity the subreddit (P3984) value represented in neurodiversity (Q2915349) as being directly related to the concept of neurodiversity.
** Reading the rules of the subreddit is helpful so that interaction happens in a way that respects members of the community.

##### Experimental Public Transparent Communication Project

This section is dedicated to documenting if a participant in this project is planning to interact with an online community. Where their intention is to make their communication transparent so that the notes here can be correlated to the communication in a certain place at an internet/web community. If a participant decides that they don't want to make public their communication that is fine, we all choose what to share and some communication may be confidential so there are reasons not to share some communication/information but transparency generally helps for verifying information.
This project can include polls or other communication.
optional "rules" As a sort of an "optional to follow" rule that participants can follow or ignore is that after a participant has created a poll or a communication plan that the participant waits for at least 48 hours to pass. After those 48 hours have passed the communication/poll/event can be carried out. That might work as a tip that could be useful for some participants as that gives time for the participant's mind to process the plan or the poll.

## Other resources

There currently exist many resources to help you learn about Neurodiversity and the issues surrounding it, as well as communities where you can discuss the topic. Here are a few that will be mentioned in the course:
* Neurodiversity.com is a links directory to web pages with relevant information.
* The Autism Hub is a group of pro-Neurodiversity blogs written by autistics and relatives of autistics. The hub bloggers are another of the big internet forerunners of the movement.
* School of Shock The article recently appearing in Mother Jones magazine that shone the spotlight on the abuses occurring at the Judge Rotenberg Center.
* It's Not A Disease An article that makes a good basic introduction to the ideas behind Neurodiversity.
* UMiNDS Course Archive All of the lectures from the University of Michigan's Disability Studies program are available here.
* Autistics.org: The Real Voice of Autism
* DifferentBrains.com A neurodiversity resource site and blog
* Not Autism Speaks is a website developed by an AFF member explaining why they do not support Autism Speaks.

### Experimental Resources

Experimental resources are for new ways to get resources that are not that common or not just static pages or pages with limited usage.
* Project awareness with video streamers - This sub project seeks to get resources by finding and interacting with people who might want to know about this resource. It will be done in a transparent way and may be "cross-disciplinary" with Open interviews.
* Project interaction with video streamers - This sub project seeks to get resources by finding and interacting with people who may relate to the Neurodiversity Movement. In it learners could potentially note down experiences and questions and answers while interacting with Neurodivergent individuals.
* Learning more about Neurotypes - This sub project aims to help participants learn more in-depth about Neurotypes, what and how people think about them.

## See Also

* Wikipedia: Neurodiversity
* Wikipedia: Neurodiversity movement

## Participants

Voyager640 01:42, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
Apolo234 10:55, 21 July 2016 (UTC +1)
LotsofTheories 2021-01-18 02:04:30 (UTC) - Oduci (discuss • contribs) 05:53, 3 November 2021 (UTC)