Autism is Not a Disease Book Review

Jodi Hare’s Autism is not a Disease: The Politics of Neurodiversity, is a paradigm-shifting read that introduces Autism and other disabilities, not as deficiencies, but alternative ways of functioning. She urges us to see Neurodiversity as the concept of different types of brains existing, rather than the common distinction between Neurotypical and diverse/atypical – There is no “normal”, just different brains. Hare guides us through a timeline of activist movements from the emergence of Disability Rights and Studies to the Disability Justice Collective in the 2000s, leading us to the Neurodiversity campaign of today. Here, society and policy makers and institutions are called upon to intellectually, economically and interpersonally support Autistic individuals rather than expecting them to change to fit society’s narrow and unrealistic standards of personhood. Through the development of these movements, she encourages that support and activism for disabled people continue to evolve to best support the changing and intersectional landscape of disabled individuals.