Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities

by Nick Walker

Within the social model of disability, when we say that a person is disabled, we mean that society isn’t properly set up to enable their participation, and instead is often set up in a way that creates barriers to their participation

The reason that so many autistic rights activists and other folks interested in fostering autistic well-being have embraced the neurodiversity paradigm, and are opposed to framing autism as a pathology (e.g., a “disorder” or “condition”), isn’t that we’re pretending autistic people aren’t disabled. Rather, it’s that we’ve observed that the pathology paradigm serves to exacerbate rather than mitigate autistic disablement.

Anyone trying to police other people’s self-identities is just another tedious cop, and a cop is pretty much the most un-queer, non-liberatory thing a person can be.

The world needs more queering and fewer cops.