‘A lovely safe umbrella to describe yourself with’ or ‘meaningless’ : an online survey of UK-based neurodivergent adults’ views of neurodiversity-related terminology

Background: Neurodivergence refers to people with ways of behaving and thinking that diverge from the norm. Examples include Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyspraxia, dyslexia and Tourette syndrome. Neurodivergent people report being stigmatised, including by language. The language preferences of neurodivergent adults have been largely restricted to studies focused on single forms of neurodivergence, primarily Autism.

Methods: We undertook an online survey with 901 neurodivergent adults from the UK, focused on their use of and thoughts about terminology related to neurodivergence, including terms such as ‘neurodiversity’ and ‘neurodivergence’. Analysis utilised descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.

Results: Almost all participants (98.8%) had heard of neurodiversity, and 74.8% used neurodiversity terminology. We developed three themes. First, ‘an umbrella term’, focused on the positive and negative aspects of how ‘neurodivergence’ incorporated multiple forms of neurodivergence. Second, ‘understanding of neurodivergence (vs. neurodiverse)’, centred around a lack of understanding of neurodiversity terminology. Third, ‘stigma and identity’ focused on neurodiversity terminology's potential to reduce stigma, and simultaneously increase stigma towards individual types of neurodivergence, including Autism and ADHD.

Conclusion: Those providing services to neurodivergent people should generally use neurodiversity terminology correctly, but could also mirror the individual's language choices when communicating one-to-one.