Opinion: Neurodiversity Proponents Object to Diverse Viewpoints

Officially, April is National Autism Awareness Month, which directly follows National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in March. Although awareness of autism and the burdens it can sometimes bring has probably increased substantially in the past 10 or 15 years, it is not as evident that understanding and acceptance of people affected by autism have increased to a comparable extent.

Neurodiversity Is Next on the Civil Rights Agenda for Workplace

A burgeoning civil rights movement is poised to change the workplace, and it revolves around differences in brain function. Advocates for neurodiversity say that it’s just as critical to business success as gender or racial diversity in the labor force. 

A growing number of companies actively recruit candidates on the autism spectrum for tasks that are suited to their strengths, such as those involving large amounts of data or rigorous attention to detail. They include SAP, Freddie Mac, ULTRA Testing, as well as specialized recruiting and placement firms for people with neurological differences.

Doctors Can Learn from Neurodiversity Movement

A must-read from the American Medical Association's Virtual Mentor, an article by Christina Nicolaidis, MD, MPH, an associate professor in the Departments of Medicine and Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland. Dr. Nicolaidis co-directs the Academic Autism Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE), directs the Samuel Wise Fellowship in General Internal Medicine at OHSU, and serves as a standing member of the NIH Mental Health Services study section. 

When, at age 3, my son received a medical diagnosis of autism, my husband and I received a list of intensive treatments that we needed to initiate as quickly as possible and a pep talk saying that if we did these things there was a good chance we could “fix him.” As a mother, I was terrified. Images of Rain Man filled my mind, quickly followed by painful memories of security officers trying to restrain my beloved 350-pound adult autistic patient during a violent meltdown. As a physician and researcher, I did what I was best trained to do — I quickly took charge of the situation, scheduled consultations with every type of therapist in the city, and immersed myself in the autism literature. But I soon realized that expert opinions clashed greatly, there were no easy answers, and the evidence in support of the various therapies was extremely limited.