Imagine this scenario. A new person joining your team at work has recently learned to speak English. Their English language background is largely academic, enabling them to communicate effectively about the technology at work but limiting informal conversation. This leads the person to sit quietly, smiling but not speaking much in casual situations. When conversing with people with a similar language background, however, the person opens up and becomes friendly, relaxed, and quite talkative. Most would understand this team member is new to this method of communicating and would seek to include them in conversations as much as possible, help translate and explain what is going on, and maybe even learn a bit of their language pattern in a friendly way.
Neurodivergence can cause a person to have similar struggles as the person in the scenario above, but with awareness and intentionality around neurodiversity, inclusion can be facilitated to the benefit of everyone involved.
The term “neurodiversity” was first used by sociologist Judy Singer in 1998 to describe how different people have brains that develop in different ways with different strengths and limitations. While neurodivergence is used to describe a wide variety of conditions—including forms of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and differences in processing sensory information—the core concept is that some people’s brains function differently in ways related to their abilities, challenges, and how they interact with others.
Contrary to Singer’s original concept of neurodiversity as functioning differently, conversations about it are often framed around a paradigm of disability: “Mike is X, so he struggles with Y.” This perspective shows an implicit, often unconscious, bias that the most common ways of thinking are normative and others are somehow defective. Considerable pushback from people who are neurodivergent often results from approaching it as a type of disability, while the reality is more nuanced.
For example, as a person on the autism spectrum, I adamantly insist I am not broken and do not require fixing. At the same time, being completely nonverbal in my early years could hardly be considered normative and not requiring action.
Complicating this further is the fact that a particular type of neurodivergence will not be the same for everyone. Marked differences between individuals in the degree of affect and impact are often described as a spectrum. However, it is important to understand the reality of neurodivergence is complex and multidimensional, rather than existing as a point on a linear scale. Some types can vary considerably by age, biological sex, and other characteristics. For example, autism in women and girls often presents differently than in men and boys. Drawing conclusions from limited study populations can result in a failure to see neurodivergence in many individuals.
Classes and educational materials are available to help people better understand the many dimensions of neurodiversity and work more effectively with people with different ways of thinking, communicating, and processing information. Incorporating the lived experience of people in diversity, equity, and inclusion programs is essential, fostering an understanding of the breath of neurodiversity and both the strengths and challenges it presents. Intentionality around equity and inclusion for all ways of thinking leads to better relationships and stronger, higher performing teams. This fact empowers us to become advocates for including neurodivergence as an essential dimension of human experience and interaction in all areas.
Yet, for all this, the heart of diversity, equity, and inclusion is not a class to be completed. Rather, it is people whose unique qualities mutually enrich our shared experience. Neurodiversity is a not a subject to be studied but a set of friends to be welcomed, cherished, and included in our lives and the life of the organizations in which we are members.
David Corliss
The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Outreach Group Corner is a regular component of Amstat News in which statisticians write about and educate our community about JEDI-related matters. If you have an idea or article for the column, email the JEDI Corner manager.
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