Opening up understanding of neurodiversity: A call for applying participatory and open scholarship practices

Recent movements towards a more open, intersectional, and inclusive academia(Birhane & Guest,  2020)  focus  on  the  need  to  address  traditional  power  imbalances  detrimentally affecting  under-represented  individuals  (e.g.,  women:  Pownall  &  Rogers,  2021;  people  of colour:  Berhe  et  al.,  2022;  non-WEIRD  [Western,  Educated,  Industrialised,  Rich,  and Democratic]  societies:  Puithllam  et  al.,  2022).  Hitherto,  neurodivergent  perspectives —i.e. non-pathological  variations  in  human  brains  (Walker,  2021)—are  often  overlooked  and misunderstood  within  behavioural  and  cognitive  sciences.  It  is  common  to  encounter assumptions that anything outside of neurotypicality is at best dismissed as outlier data, or at worst, considered disadvantageous and in need of ‘fixing’ (e.g., Gernsbacher & Pripas-Kapit, 2012). Such viewpoints hinder a broader understanding of human behaviour and cognition. Here,  we    call  for  more open and Participatory  Research on  neurodiversity  through addressing the issue of power imbalance.