Welcome all!
It’s a busy time of year. One of the initiatives that I have been busy with is the development of the research department at the Neurodiversity Education Research Center (NERC). At our first public meeting on October 27th, 2022, we received feedback on the proposed Equity and Integrity Research Statement and Research Practice Guidelines. This feedback will be used to finalize NERC’s core research program.
We do not intend to do research with neurodivergent communities in the same ways that they have been done in the past. Usually studies have been ‘done to’ or ‘done on’ neurodivergent people or people with disabilities. Instead, the center intends to follow neurodiversity approaches (Dwyer, 2022). While not all neurodivergent individuals consider themselves disabled, the same or similar social and institutional challenges to inclusion often apply. Neurodiversity approaches differ from both the medical model and the social model in their description of disability because disability is viewed as ecological, meaning that individuals and the context are always in relation with each other. The focus on research should not be on ‘fixing’ an individual or solely on changing social structures, but on identifying a problem and considering how to meet the needs of the individual AND make changes in the environment that increase inclusion for all. The hope is that neurodiversity research would be informed by, planned and conducted with, and assessed by individuals from neurodivergent communities.
The recorded public meeting will be released at a later time. To view the presentation from the public meeting in an uninterrupted format, see below or go to this link https://youtu.be/LMHRdH2xdEE
Feedback is always welcome.
Until next time!
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