Resources for learning more about Neurodiversity, Neurodivergence, and Design

Compiled by Verona Carpenter Architects, neurodivergent advocates Rachel Updegrove and Ev Smith, and occupational therapist Cait Rosica.

Books:

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman

This bestselling book upends conventional thinking about autism and suggests a broader model for acceptance, understanding, and full participation in society for people who think differently (penguinrandomhouse.com)

The Senses: Design Beyond Vision by Ellen Lupton and Andrea Lipps

A powerful reminder to anyone who thinks design is primarily a visual pursuit; explores how space, materials, sound, and light affect the mind and body. Learn how contemporary designers engage sensory experience. (bookshop.org)

Lost at School by Ross Greene

Emphasizing the revolutionarily simple and positive notion that kids do well if they can and do not misbehave to manipulate

Look me in the Eye by John Elder Robison

Moving, darkly funny story of growing up with Asperger’s at a time when the diagnosis simply didn’t exist. A born storyteller, Robison takes you inside the head of a boy whom teachers and other adults regarded as “defective.” (goodreads.com)

An Outsider’s Guide to Humans: What Science Taught Me About What We Do and Who We Are by Camilla Pang

Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at the age of eight, Camilla Pang struggled to understand the world around her. Desperate for a solution, she asked her mother if there was an instruction manual for humans that she could consult. With no blueprint to life, Pang began to create her own, using the language she understands best: science. An instruction manual for life, love, and relationships by a brilliant young scientist whose Asperger’s syndrome allows her–and us–to see ourselves in a different way…and to be better at being human. (penguinrandomhouse.com)

We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation by Eric Garcia

Garcia began writing about autism because he was frustrated by the media’s coverage of it: the myths that the disorder is caused by vaccines, the narrow portrayals of autistic people as white men working in Silicon Valley. His own life as an autistic person didn’t look anything like that. He is Latino, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, and works as a journalist covering politics in Washington, DC. Garcia realized he needed to put into writing what so many autistic people have been saying for years—autism is a part of their identity, they don’t need to be fixed. (harpercollins.com)

Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity: Unmasking Autism by Devon Price

For every visibly Autistic person you meet, there are countless "masked" Autistic people who pass as neurotypical. Masking is a common coping mechanism in which Autistic people hide their identifiably Autistic traits in order to fit in with societal norms, adopting a superficial personality at the expense of their mental health. This can include suppressing harmless stims, papering over communication challenges by presenting as unassuming and mild-mannered, and forcing themselves into situations that cause severe anxiety, all so they aren't seen as needy or "odd." (bookshop.org) In Unmasking Autism, Dr. Devon Price shares his personal experience with masking and blends history, social science research, prescriptions, and personal profiles to tell a story of neurodivergence that has thus far been dominated by those on the outside looking in.

Multiple Multisensory Rooms: Myth Busting the Magic by Joanna Grace

Autistic author provides context on why this is a controversial topic in the autistic community, suggestions on how to do sensory rooms better. Multisensory rooms are widely used across the country in schools, care settings, hospitals and homes. Even settings such as football stadiums and airports are installing multisensory environments. Nevertheless, a significant lack of effective research has led to a sense of unease around sensory rooms. This crucial book explores the use of multisensory rooms in order to ease that anxiety; taking the mystery out of multisensory rooms, and supporting the reader to reflect and make the most out of their space. (routledge.com)

Workplace Neurodiversity Rising by Lyric Rivera

“Having a supportive environment can be the difference between employee success and failure. When we supoport the diverse minds within an organization, everyone on the team benefits (because much of what is necessary for NeuroDivergent success, will benefit everyone in a company). That's why I've written ths handy guide for you, to help empower other people and organizations to consider what they can do to support NeuroDivergent employees.” – Lyric Rivera

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

The work of queer autistic scholar Nick Walker has played a key role in the evolving discourse on human neurodiversity.
Neuroqueer Heresies collects a decade's worth of Dr. Walker's most influential writings, along with new commentary by the author and new material on her radical conceptualization of Neuroqueer Theory. (goodreads.com)

Architecture of Disability by David Gissen

As Beatriz Colomina writes, "This book is an urgent and exhilarating manifesto that calls for nothing less than a complete rethinking of architecture. Rather than insisting that architectural forms need to be adjusted to accommodate a greater diversity of impairments, it uses diversities of physical, mental, social, and collective capacities to unlock new ways to conceive of architecture, model it, design it, describe it, represent it, theorize it, and write histories about it."

What Can a Body Do? by Sarah Hendren

By rendering familiar objects and environments newly strange and wondrous, What Can a Body Do? helps us imagine a future that will better meet the extraordinary range of our collective needs and desires.

Disability, Space, Architecture: A Reader by Jos Boys

This book reveals how our everyday social attitudes and practices about people, objects and spaces can be better understood through the lens of disability, and it suggests how thinking differently about dis/ability can enable innovative and new kinds of critical and creative architectural and urban design education and practice.

Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design by Bess Williamson

Takes us through this important history, showing how American ideas of individualism and rights came to shape the material world, often with unexpected consequences.

Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability by Aimi Hamraie

"Unlike few other books of its kind, Building Access uses critical theory grounded in historical examples to explore the complex relationships between access and disability, and, even more importantly, between knowledge and access."
—Journal of American History