"Academia, as a whole, is structured entirely without any consideration for neurodivergency," and other things neurodivergent students want you to know

Abstract

As more neurodivergent and Neuroqueer students are entering higher education, it is important for educators to be cognizant of and understand what it means to be neurodivergent. Importantly, we must uphold and give space to neurodivergent folks’ narratives to best understand their experiences and identity, and for us to best engage and support our students. While neurodivergent folks are overrepresented in STEM, there is very little research examining the phenomenon of being neurodivergent in the STEM classroom. As a part of a larger study into this phenomenon, we asked neurodivergent folks at various stages of their careers in physics the question: "is there anything you wish professors or colleagues knew about being neurodivergent?" We here report on specifically neurodivergent students’ (undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate non-academic) responses, and discuss the results drawn from them. We then follow this discussion with recommendations for praxis.