On World Autism Awareness Day (2 April) each year people around the globe celebrate neurodiversity in all its unique forms—helping to uplift neurodivergent voices, challenge misconceptions and stereotypes, and advocate for greater accessibility.
We’re doing our small part today by sharing a brand new set of resources, co-produced by our experts by experience working alongside Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care System (ICS), designed to help everyone think about language they use when talking about neurodivergence.
We want to celebrate this team effort and demonstrate how we can move conversations forward into action, creating more neuro-inclusive and welcoming communities.
The five ‘neurodivergent language infographics’ aim to capture this practical guidance in the form of a series of handy prompts, divided into:
- An introduction to the four themes
- Theme 1: Ask, listen and observe
- Theme 2: Avoid assumptions – I am unique
- Theme 3: Recognise strengths and understand needs
- Theme 4: Learn and adapt.
As people explore these resources, the local neurodivergent people, their families, professionals and allies involved hope they will reflect on:
- What the messages mean to them in their professional and/or personal lives
- What they might do next (or differently) to become a better ally to neurodivergent people in their lives.
Project co-lead and expert by experience, Remie Colledge, explains why these resources are needed: “When I received my autism diagnosis and began to connect with the neurodivergent community, I remember how daunting it felt suddenly being surrounded by so many new words.
“Over time, I realised there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to talk about neurodivergence, because we are all unique. We will describe our experiences in different ways, and that’s okay.
“The words we use to talk about neurodivergence can help people to feel heard, seen and validated. Subtle shifts in words and language can help us move away from talking ‘about people’ in ways that don’t necessarily match up with their experiences, to being able to develop shared understanding, and building trust and connection in the process.”
Experts by experience Kat Stapleton and Fay McSorley also offered their own experiences and insight to the production of these resources.
Kat says: “Since receiving my autism diagnosis as an adult, I have learnt a LOT about the powerful affect the words we use can have on a person’s self-esteem and feelings of belonging.
“In the past, I would use phrases such as ‘high-functioning autism’, not understanding that this sort of language is making assumptions about a person’s experience of being autistic and can feel invalidating.
“Through the language infographic work, we collaborated with people with lived experience of being neurodivergent to hear their insights and personal perspectives. This further highlighted to me how important it is that we are all mindful of the words we use, we all pause and take time to listen to others and we keep learning together.”
Fay adds: “I have very much enjoyed the opportunity to be involved in the development of this work, making use of my own lived experience. Shining a guiding light on suitable neurodivergent language use is very important to me and I hope it will encourage further conversations in our community.
“As language is constantly changing, it will be interesting to see how our work today helps shape the understanding and support available tomorrow.”
Please visit the Coventry and Warwickshire ICS website www.happyhealthylives.uk to read about the new resources in more depth.
You can download the infographics in colour or black and white and also as blank templates for your own messages.
About Experts by Experience
Grapevine’s Experts by Experience Co-Production Service is an opportunity for autistic people or people with a learning disability to influence decision-making and have a say on new services and strategies that have or will have an impact on disabled people.
This may involve designing, reviewing and evaluating different services, as well as supporting local authority and NHS staff recruitment.
This project is commissioned by Warwickshire County Council, Coventry City Council and Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board and contactable at ebe@grapevinecovandwarks.org.
Follow this link to learn more about our Shifting Power work.