Neurodiversity-affirming space (NDAS) is a new concept which has not been researched and has no definition. The proposed research would work with neurodivergent people to co-create a functional working definition of NDAS. This would lay the groundwork for research into how and why NDAS works and how it can be created. Such research could inform the way educational institutions, businesses and governments interact with their neurodivergent students, customers, clients and constituents.

The research would be led by three experienced neurodivergent independent researchers with good networks in neurodivergent communities. This is important for our credibility. The neurodivergent community is understandably suspicious of institution-based researchers due to past research projects which have been harmful to neurodivergent people. Also, there is an increasing demand from policy makers and service providers for work that is co-produced by people with lived experience.

The proposed research builds on existing work on autistic space which is useful but has a narrow focus. We plan to hold two workshops, one online and one offline, each for up to 10 neurodivergent people. We would use established creative research methods – storytelling, drawing, and collage – to generate and begin to analyse data with our participants. Then the research team would complete the analytic work collaboratively, and test the outcome with our participants for feedback before finalizing our functional working definition. We would disseminate our methods and findings widely, including to our participant groups and our professional networks, through an open access academic journal article, a high-profile blog, a conference presentation (if accepted), and our extensive social media networks.