They say that, in the same way that we've learned to celebrate racial, ethnic, and sexual diversity, we should be celebrating "neurodiversity".
A group called Aspies for Freedom runs a Web site that celebrates what it calls "neurodiversity," arguing that there are advantages as well as disadvantages in an autistic condition.
The neurodiversity activists have learned a trick or two from history, even if they'd like to see much of it undone or rebranded as a history of medical hubris.
Neurodiversity activists confront parents of severely autistic children in exchanges that are as full of pain as they are rich in irony.
More recently, the neurodiversity movement has changed how we understand autism.
Mr. Ne'eman is at the forefront of a growing movement that describes autism as a form of "neurodiversity" that should be embraced and accommodated, just as physical disabilities have led to the construction of ramps and stalls in public restrooms for people with disabilities.
Some advocates of "neurodiversity" call this the next civil rights frontier: society, they say, stands to benefit from accepting people whose brains work differently.
This theory stems from the idea of neurodiversity, a term first coined by the Australian sociologist Judy Singer, who sees autism as a natural brain variation, not a brain disorder.
He enters into a long and involved explanation of the politics of autism advocacy – he's on the side of seeing autism as part of neurodiversity, an expression of a non-neurotypical personality, rather than as a condition for which a cure must be sought.
Neurotribes is his exploration of the rise in diagnoses, tracing the history of the disorder, from the clinicians who discovered it in 1943 to the controversy around the MMR vaccine, as well as exploring its impact on families, and the growing "neurodiversity" movement.
The nomination of Steve Silberman's Neurotribes for the Wellcome book prize shortlist – a book which can be largely credited for bringing the term neurodiversity into the mainstream – is one such sign.
