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As Neurodiversity Celebration Week continues, today we’re focusing on something that consistently strengthens inclusive practice:
Lived experience brings insight you can’t get anywhere else.
Neurodivergent people and families hold practical knowledge about what helps, what hinders, and what different spaces actually feel like to navigate. That insight comes from lived, everyday experience — from adapting, problem-solving, and finding ways to belong in environments that aren’t always designed with neurodivergent needs in mind.
Importantly, lived experience isn’t difficult to access.
It can start with something as simple as speaking to the people who attend your sessions, use your services, or take part in your activities. Asking what works for them. Asking what doesn’t. And being prepared to really listen – and act on what you hear.
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“For me, as a parent carer, the one thing that makes the most difference when I’m trying to get my son to try something new, is that the person leading the session welcomes and takes an active interest in him, and lets him know that they’re glad he’s there. If he feels welcome and listened to, he’s so much more likely to want to go back, and I’m much more likely to trust that the organisers will talk to me if there’s a problem”.
When lived experience is valued and centred, inclusion becomes more responsive, more realistic, and far more effective.
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Research and lived experience work best together
Research can tell us what tends to help and why. Lived experience tells us how it feels, where things break down, and what actually makes a difference in real life.
When these two come together, practice becomes stronger. More realistic. More human.
When they don’t, inclusion efforts can miss the mark, even when they’re well intentioned.
What gets missed when lived experience is excluded
When neurodivergent voices aren’t part of the conversation, support is often designed for people rather than with them.
This can lead to:
- Adjustments that look good on paper but don’t work in practice
- Support that focuses on behaviour rather than barriers
- Environments that technically meet requirements but still feel unsafe or overwhelming
- People being expected to adapt, mask, or cope instead of systems changing around them
Without lived experience, it’s easy to solve the wrong problem.
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How this can shape our work
Lived experience needs to be built into planning, processes and practices alongside evidence-informed approaches. That combination matters. It means sessions are grounded in real experiences of navigating education, activities, services, and everyday life.
It also means we talk honestly about complexity. About what helps. About what doesn’t. And about the gap that often exists between good intentions and real inclusion.
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Learning alongside one another
Inclusion improves when people are given space to listen, reflect, and learn from perspectives different from their own.
That’s why we created the Neurodiversity Network (NDN). A space that brings together neurodivergent people, families, and activity providers to share experiences, challenge assumptions, and work collaboratively.
The strength of the network is in the conversation. It’s not about having a single right answer, but about hearing one another and learning together.
As we’ve said throughout this week, inclusion isn’t something you finish. It’s something you build, review, and continue to adapt over time.
When lived experience is centred alongside research, that learning becomes far more meaningful.
“As a parent, I’m very used to advocating for my child. I’m constantly thinking about how I can help him have a rewarding and fun childhood. I’ll go to the ends of the earth to work with providers, if I believe they’re really committed to being inclusive. Lots of parent carers and disabled people, though, have experienced rejection, hostility, and even humiliation in everyday life. If you are serious about welcoming people with additional needs to your setting, you must be prepared to become an ally for people who have been excluded, and open yourself up to learning as much as you can”.
We’ll continue unpacking this over the rest of the week with more practical ideas and reflections you can take back to your own spaces.
