23/10/2026
Things I’m scared of as an occupational therapist, disability advocate and neurodivergent person working within the NDIS space.
• Losing autonomy as decisions that have been made for people rather than with them.
• Judging people by their external behaviours without understanding their needs, experiences or environments.
• Dismissing lived and professional experience as though neurodivergence can be understood through textbooks alone.
• Ignoring systemic oppression including the impacts of ableism, colonialism and patriarchy on neurodivergent people.
• A lack of leadership accountability — when inclusion is promised but not embedded into governance, systems and environments.
Neurodiversity-affirming practice cannot stop at the individual. It must challenge the systems that shape people’s lives.
We shouldn’t be teaching people to adapt to harmful systems. We should be changing the systems.
Do these scare you too?