The struggle of articulating my experiences as someone who is highly verbal in ways that are typically perceived as "intellect," while EXTREMELY disabled in virtually every other respect, is so hard, bc almost everyone else who seems to be trying to do it is falling into the massive rhetorical ravine that is "over-identifying with the identity of Being Smart because that's the only avenue available to me which gives me societal value" and "implying that because many people and institutions would benefit from valuing my perspective, the way my brain works must be somehow superior to how other brains work."
Neurodivergence is an important framework because it centers the fact that human society benefits from having individuals whose minds interpret information in a variety of ways, and whose experiences of moving through the world take a variety of shapes. My mind/experience is one of them, and it is one that is undervalued in my society. It is by no means the only type of mind/experience that is undervalued. It would be societally beneficial for those of us with undervalued neurotypes to be respected and consulted more about the things that shape our society. Superiority and supremacy don't have a place in these discussions.
