By Emma Jayasinghe, Research and Policy Intern 

Neurodivergent people have the same rights as everyone else to the highest attainable standard of health, education, decent work and social security. Yet whether those rights can be realised is shaped by how healthcare, education, employment and other systems understand and respond to neurodivergence. For neurodivergent people who also experience racism, poverty, gender inequality or other forms of discrimination, these barriers can be compounded. 

The Neurodiversity Movement has made important progress in challenging the pathologisation of neurodivergence. In other words, it has done vital work to break down assumptions that neurodivergence is simply a biological flaw that must be cured or fixed. Though the movement has challenged one form of marginalisation, an intersectional approach is needed to recognise that not all neurodivergent people experience discrimination in the same way. It is now more important than ever to ensure that neurodivergent people, in all their diversity, can access their rights.  

Neurodiversity is the term used to describe the natural variation in the way people think, process sensory information, and control movement. In essence, no two brains are exactly the same. Although everyone is neurodiverse, around 1 in 7 people in the UK are neurodivergent. This includes people with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia. Neurodivergence is often invisible, meaning that people’s needs may not be recognised by healthcare professionals and others. These barriers can be compounded when neurodivergence intersects with race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender and other forms of inequality. This is the basis of an intersectional approach. 

This overlapping between different social identities in a person is important when considering the right to health. Health is not purely determined by accessibility to medical treatment, it is also shaped by whether people are accurately diagnosed, listened to, and provided with appropriate and culturally sensitive care they need to improve their health and wellbeing. For neurodivergent people of colour, systemic racism, ableism, and Eurocentric understandings of neurodivergence can interact to create additional barriers to good health outcomes and prevent them from achieving the highest possible standard of health.  

The Neurodiversity Movement has played a pivotal role in challenging the pathologisation of neurodivergence by asserting the rights, autonomy, and humanity of neurodivergent people. However, these conversations have not always fully considered how intersectionality shapes experiences of neurodivergence.  

The lack of an intersectional understanding of neurodivergence has important consequences for health equality in the UK. There is a considerable difference in the diagnoses rates between different ethnic groups and between boys and girls. The highest rates of diagnosis for autism and ADHD, in particular, are among white boys in the UK, compared with children from other ethnic groups, including south asian groups who have some of the lowest rates of diagnoses for autism and ADHD. “That’s not to say autism [and ADHD] exists less in those groups” says Evie Shore, a researcher at the University of Leeds “… because of the barriers these groups face, they’re less likely to receive the diagnosis” and more likely to receive later diagnoses. This reflects differences in recognition, referral, assessment, and appropriate healthcare for these groups. In other words, the absence of a diagnosis does not necessarily represent the absence of neurodivergence.  

These inequalities can have consequences far beyond whether an individual receives a label. A missed or delayed diagnosis can prevent people from accessing their right to health, but also a whole host of other rights like just and favourable conditions of work and the right to education. It can also mean that neurodivergent people are required to navigate healthcare, work, and education system which does not recognise or accommodate their needs. These factors contribute to the challenges that are faced by neurodivergent people of colour in receiving fair treatment and appropriate support, which create further barriers to exercising their rights. 

It is therefore vital to bring a more intersectional lens to conversations about neurodivergence, as well as into UK healthcare training and services. Doing so can help shift the focus towards examining how healthcare systems, diagnostic practices, and wider social structures can create and sustain barriers to health for neurodivergent people of colour. Understanding and addressing these barriers is essential to upholding neurodivergent people of colour’s right to health and access to the recognition, support, and care necessary to live lives of dignity, autonomy, and freedom.