User:Judy Singer

I am cited in the Wikipedia article on Neurodiversity as the person to whom the term Neurodiversity is attributed.

The term first appeared in my 1997-8 Sociology Honours Thesis Odd People In  completed at the University of Technology Sydney.

This thesis was, as far as I could ascertain at the time, the first academic and sociological study to recognize the emergence of a new category of disability, the "Neurological Disorders" - at a time when there were only 3 categories of disability discussed by governments and Disability Studies alike "Physical, Intellectual, and Mental Illness". My work thus prefigured a new paradigm for disability studies. As I struggled to express my ideas, I soon realized the new paradigm would need new language to describe it. At the same time I foresaw that the emerging new social movements around other Neurological "disorders" such as ADHD and the "Dys"es (that were now being rebadged as "differences" by the Autistic Self-Advocacy Movement) might one day unite to add a new category to the intersections of gender, class, ethnicity. And that new movement would need a name: thus I wrote: ''For me, the significance of the “Autistic Spectrum” lies in its call for and anticipation of a “Politics of Neurodiversity”. The “Neurologically Different” represent a new addition to the familiar political categories of  class / gender / race  and will augment the insights of the Social Model of Disability.''

''The rise of Neurodiversity takes postmodern fragmentation one step further. Just as the postmodern era sees every once too solid belief melt into air, even our most taken-for granted assumptions: that we all more or less see, feel, touch, hear, smell, and sort information, in more or less the same way, (unless visibly disabled) are being dissolved . The term Neurodiversity probably reached the general public when it was published in Disability Discourse by the UK Open University Press in my chapter titled "Why can't you be normal for once in your life? From a "problem with no name" to a new category of disability"''

I have now republished the original thesis with a new introduction for the general public available. It is available online at Amazon titled Neurodiversity: the birth of an idea . The book includes my preface reflecting back on the era in which I wrote the book.

As there is controversy over whether the the term should be attributed to me or American writer Harvey Blume, my book also contains a description of my conversations with Harvey Blume on the topic, published with his permission.