Neurodivergent Futures

As we look forward from the current state of the science to the future of neurodiversity research, it is necessary to both understand our past and identify the sorts of futures we would like to co-create into being for next generations. As neurodivergent researchers and activists who have been collaborating to subvert ableist power structures, bring community voice to research, and challenge dominant narratives of neurodivergence for two decades, the authors engaged in a futures planning workshop around the questions, “What would a best possible future for neurodiversity research be like?” and “What could facilitate or jeopardize that vision?” After conducting futures visioning and strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis workshops, we used the futures triangle framework to present our ideas for what plausible and desirable futures might look like, and our recommendations for action to reach them.