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Neurodivergent And Disability Definitions
Internalized Ableism
When society’s messages about disability and difference get turned inward, shaping shame, self-judgment, or pressure to appear “capable.”
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Internalized ableism happens when we absorb society’s messages about disability and difference and turn them inward. It can sound like pressure to appear “capable,” shame when we need support, or the belief that our worth depends on how well we can mask or push through. This can affect people with both visible and invisible disabilities, including neurodivergent people, those with chronic illness, and people with body-based differences.
This process is often unconscious. It’s shaped by years of living in systems that link productivity, independence, and conformity with value. Over time, those external expectations can become internalized, making it harder to honor our needs, ask for help, or embrace interdependence.
Internalized ableism can look similar to self-criticism or trauma responses, and they often coexist. The difference is that internalized ableism is rooted in cultural beliefs about disability and difference — ideas learned from systems and norms — rather than solely from individual experiences of harm.
Noticing internalized ableism can help us gently recognize where these messages come from, so we can begin to loosen their grip and relate to ourselves with more compassion and choice.
Intersectionality
A way of understanding how different parts of a person’s identity, like race and disability, overlap to shape their experiences of oppression and opportunity.
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Intersectionality is a framework for understanding how different parts of a person’s identity, like race, disability, gender, and class, overlap to shape their experiences of power, marginalization, and privilege. The term was coined by Black feminist legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how Black women face forms of discrimination that cannot be fully explained by “racism alone” or “sexism alone.”
When we look specifically at disability and race, intersectionality helps us notice patterns that disappear if we treat them separately. Disabled people of color are more likely to encounter barriers in healthcare, education, employment, and the legal system because racism and ableism compound. For example, Black and Brown disabled students may be more harshly disciplined, mis‑labeled, or denied support when racist stereotypes and ableist assumptions shape how adults interpret their behavior and needs. And when someone is having a public meltdown or crisis, Black and Brown disabled people face greater risk of police violence or criminalization than white disabled people.
Black feminist disability scholars show that disability and race are tangled together, not separate issues. Racism has frequently borrowed ableist ideas — for example, falsely treating people of color as ‘less intelligent’ or ‘unfit’ and using those labels to justify exclusion and violence. At the same time, systemic racism creates disability through things like environmental toxins, medical neglect, chronic stress, police violence, and unequal access to care, which all increase health risks for many communities of color. Intersectionality gives us language for this loop: how racism and ableism feed each other, instead of acting as separate, parallel systems.
In daily life, intersectionality can show up in subtle and cumulative ways: like being the only Black Autistic person in a mostly white neurodivergent space, navigating clinicians who pathologize both culture and cognition, or noticing that disability spaces often center white experiences while racial justice spaces overlook disabled needs. Intersectionality matters because it shines a light on how systems like racism and ableism operate together, and how we can respond in ways that move us toward collective liberation.
Insomnia
Ongoing difficulty falling or staying asleep, or waking without feeling rested, and is more common among autistic and ADHD people.
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Insomnia refers to ongoing difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or returning to sleep after waking during the night. It’s more common among Autistic and ADHD people and is often shaped by how the nervous system processes stimulation, stress, and the shift into rest.
For many people, insomnia grows out of a mix of racing or looping thoughts, sensory sensitivities, and a brain that stays alert long after the body feels exhausted. Even when someone is deeply tired, their nervous system may struggle to downshift into sleep. This often reflects both psychological and body-based factors, including differences in how brain systems like the hypothalamus help regulate arousal and circadian rhythms.
Insomnia isn’t a failure of sleep hygiene or willpower. Support usually involves more than bedtime routines alone and may include sensory accommodations, nervous system regulation, predictable wind-down rhythms, and easing the pressure to “sleep on command.”
For some, additional support might include working with a therapist, targeted sleep medications or supplements, light therapy, or other approaches that address both the mind and the body.
Neuroqueer
The intersection of neurodivergence and queerness, and/or a way of resisting normative expectations around identity, behavior, and thinking.
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Neuroqueer is a term used to describe the overlap between neurodivergence and queerness, and also an intentional resistance to norms around cognition, gender, sexuality, communication, and behavior.
For some, neuroqueer is an identity — being both neurodivergent and queer (as in, “I am neuroqueer”). It can also be used as a verb or practice (“to neuroqueer”), naming ways of queering expectations about how people are supposed to think, feel, communicate, relate, or move through the world. In this sense, neuroqueering challenges ideas of normality shaped by ableism, heteronormativity, and rigid social rules.
Neuroqueer theory explores how norms around neurological functioning (neuronormativity) and norms around gender and sexuality (heteronormativity) are deeply intertwined, suggesting that challenging one often involves challenging the other.
Neuroqueer offers language for experiences that don’t fit neatly into existing categories, and for claiming authenticity, creativity, and agency at the edges of dominant norms.
*The term neuroqueer emerged around 2008 through the work of Nick Walker, Athena Lynn Michaels-Dillon, and M. Remi Yergeau.
