Closed Making the world a better place for neurodivergent people and their families

Introducing my Academist project

My project at Academist is the initiative to improve the societal understanding of neurodivergent minds. I do not often use the word, neurodevelopmental disabilities. Instead, I used neurodivergence or its adjective form, neurodivergent. However, using this word, neurodivergence, might have made my project be unclear to some people, so I have made a new title image (it was, however, not possible to actually change the title image after the program started due to the Academist’s regulations).

I am currently an Honorary Postdoctoral Research Fellow at IOE, Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, and am working on multiple research projects on wellbeing in neurodivergent people. While I am working on various themes such as loneliness, suicidality, and sensory experiences, what I consider essential in my research is providing scientific evidence to the experiences of neurodivergent people. This is important because many social systems such as policies remain unchanged without scientific evidence no matter how we hope for them to take neurodivergent people’s experiences seriously.

I am multiply-neurodivergent, and as a neurodivergent researcher on neurodiversity, I find that most of research on neurodiversity is a waste of time and research funding. There are many academic papers that upset me as I read them. For example, when they say, “children with ADHD have XYZ issues”, I wonder “whose issues?”. The society is built for the neuro-majority, making it challenging for neurodivergent people to navigate. It is wrong for the society to label the majority as ‘normal’ and the rest as ‘impaired’.

Through research, I would like to communicate neurodivergent people’s experiences. To do so, I am passionate about co-producing research with neurodivergent people (i.e., designing, conducting, and disseminating the research with them).

With financial support from Academist, I am planning to do regular talks on Zoom to improve the societal understanding of neurodivergent minds. I invite everyone who resonates with this cause to support my initiative!

And those who have already supported this project, thank you very much!

Best wishes,
Kana