- Understand neuroinclusivity
- Learn important information about neuroinclusivity
- Review our practices
- Create more inclusive and accessible standards
- Explore the resources
- Read the final report
- Get in touch
Understand neuroinclusivity
Neuroinclusivity is a key step on the path to a fully inclusive Canada. Neurodivergent thinkers face a wide range of barriers in education, employment and day-to-day life. Policies, practices and built environments can be made more neuroinclusive when they are designed with due consideration of these challenges.
Our research team developed a targeted and widely adaptable set of recommended practices to apply a neurodivergent lens to the development of standards. By facilitating the incorporation of neurodivergent perspectives, this project gives standards development professionals and others a new way to identify, remove and prevent barriers to inclusion.
Learn important information about neuroinclusivity
Many terms related to accessibility and inclusivity exist. In the context of neuroinclusivity, people and organizations understand them differently depending on context, needs and lived experiences.
We created a list with 12 important terms we recommend you familiarize yourself with to get a foundational understanding of what we mean when we say “neuroinclusivity.” Two standards development professionals shared their perspectives on neuroinclusivity with us. We invite you to learn about their opinions and understandings of the importance of considering neuroinclusivity when developing standards.
Review our practices
Reducing stigma and prejudice against neurodivergent people starts with education. However, the process must always involve neurodivergent people at every stage. This inclusion fosters more sensory-aware, supportive and flexible spaces and procedures that benefit the widest range of thinking and experiences.
Our research, literature reviews, and consultations with neurodivergent Canadians and standards developers led us to develop five recommended practices. They focus on promoting neuroinclusivity for neurodivergent Canadians, ensuring that:
- The content of standards (new or updated) is free of information that creates barriers
- Each key stage of the standards-development process incorporates neuroinclusive considerations
Our five recommended practices are:
- Change attitudes and perceptions of neurodivergence to reduce stigma and neurotypical expectations of neurodivergent people by improving awareness about neurodivergence and neuroinclusivity through education.
- Ensure that diverse and neurodivergent voices are involved in research and standards development.
- Reduce ambiguity in communication, processes and procedures.
- Consider and accommodate the sensory needs of neurodivergent people.
- Actively support the varying needs of neurodivergent people.
Create more inclusive and accessible standards
Did you know that approximately 20 percent of Canadians are neurodivergent?
While this number represents a large part of the population, many neurodivergent disabilities are non-visible. That means standards are often created with neurotypical abilities as the baseline, overlooking diverse perspectives, experiences and ways of thinking.
We created a tipsheet to help you make neuroinclusivity a routine consideration when you create standards. We encourage you to follow our five recommended steps and actions to ensure a more mindful standards development process. We’ve mapped these steps to the standards development process for easier implementation. The tipsheet also includes a short reflection activity that you can refer to as you think about neuroinclusivity in your work.
Explore the resources
Our information repository provides fact sheets, checklists, tools and resources to help you apply a neurodivergent lens to your work. We created and curated these recommended resources with the active guidance and creative participation of the neurodivergent community.
This material is intended to help you grow your understanding of neuroinclusivity, share the knowledge with your peers, and apply neuroinclusive considerations actively and consistently.
Read the final report
Final report citation:
Connolly, T., Rahimi, S., Vukovic, B., Brown, H.M. (2024). A Neurodivergent Lens: Recommended Practices for Neuroinclusivity. Accessibility Institute at Carleton University, Ottawa. https://doi.org/10.22215/rcgl/24078e
Get in touch
If you would like the French version of this webpage or have any other inquiries about this project, please contact Accessibility.Institute@carleton.ca.