A new tool from the Institute of Neurodiversity (ION) to help people of all neurotypes assess their experience of equality, identify gaps and decide what to do next.
From declaring equality to experiencing it
In October 2021, the Institute of Neurodiversity (ION) launched its International Declaration of Neurodiversity, establishing five principles intended to advance equality and inclusion for people of all neurotypes.
Five years later, an important question remains:
How close are we to experiencing these principles in our everyday lives?
We may believe in equality, introduce inclusion policies and make commitments to accommodate neurological differences. But how do we know whether these commitments translate into people’s actual experiences?
A school may consider itself inclusive, while some students struggle to access learning. An employer may celebrate neurodiversity while employees encounter barriers to advancement. A hospital may provide excellent clinical care while failing to accommodate different communication or sensory needs.
The gap between the principles we endorse and the reality people experience is what we call The Neurodiversity Gap.
ION has developed a simple, freely available self-assessment tool to help make that gap visible.
Five principles. One simple assessment.
The Neurodiversity Gap tool is based on the five articles of ION’s International Declaration of Neurodiversity:
- Neurodiversity Literacy — Understanding neurological differences and their implications across society.
- Recognition — Recognising and supporting differences without stigma or discrimination.
- Supporting Difference — Ensuring societal structures accommodate neurological variation and enable full participation.
- Participation of Neurominorities in Policy Development — Ensuring neurominorities have meaningful involvement in developing policies that affect them.
- Resource Allocation — Ensuring people who need additional resources, services or support can access them.
These descriptions summarise the principles. The downloadable tool includes the Declaration’s full article wording.
For each principle, individuals assess their experience on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means the principle is not being met at all and 10 means it is fully met.
There are no right or wrong answers. People are assessing their own experiences, not completing an examination or seeking a diagnosis.
Importantly, the assessment is about the environment being experienced, not the neurological characteristics of the person completing it.
One tool, many environments
The same tool can be used across almost any area of life. An individual simply chooses the environment they wish to assess: a school, university, workplace, hospital, public service, community organisation or another setting. They then consider how well each of the five principles is being realised in that environment.
This means one person might complete several assessments and discover that their experiences differ significantly between settings. They might feel fully recognised and supported at university but encounter substantial barriers when accessing healthcare.
That distinction matters.
It demonstrates that exclusion is not necessarily an inherent consequence of someone’s neurotype. It can arise from how environments, institutions and systems are designed and operated.
Example 1: A student assessing their school
Imagine a student who generally enjoys school but struggles because teaching methods do not accommodate how they learn. They complete The Neurodiversity Gap assessment and give the following illustrative scores:
| Declaration principle | Score |
| Neurodiversity Literacy | 5/10 |
| Recognition | 7/10 |
| Supporting Difference | 3/10 |
| Participation in Policy Development | 4/10 |
| Resource Allocation | 6/10 |
The student identifies Supporting Difference as their largest concern. They might discuss the results with a parent, teacher or school representative, explaining that although they feel respected, they do not have equal access to learning methods that work for them.
The assessment does not prescribe what the school should do. It helps the student identify and communicate their experience. The student can keep the assessment, share it voluntarily or revisit it later to see whether their experience has improved.
Example 2: An employee assessing their workplace
An employee may work for an organisation that publicly promotes neuroinclusion but find that its everyday practices favour particular communication and working styles.
They might score Recognition at 8/10 because colleagues are respectful, but Supporting Difference at 4/10 because meetings, recruitment processes or working arrangements create barriers. This reveals something that an overall employee satisfaction score might miss.
Feeling respected is not necessarily the same as experiencing equality or equity.
The employee may choose to discuss the assessment with their manager, HR department, employee representative or Employee Resource Group (ERG). They do not need to disclose their neurotype to explain the barriers they experience.
Example 3: An Employee Resource Group using the tool collectively
The Neurodiversity Gap could also provide a practical framework for group discussions.
An ERG might invite members to complete the assessment individually, focusing on their shared workplace. Participants could then voluntarily discuss which principles appear strongest and where they experience the greatest gaps. For example, members might generally agree that their employer has improved neurodiversity literacy but identify continuing barriers in recruitment, promotion or access to adjustments.
Rather than beginning with a general discussion about whether the organisation is inclusive, the ERG has five established principles around which to structure the conversation. The group could use these findings to inform discussions with leadership and propose areas for further examination. Participation and disclosure should remain voluntary. Individual assessments belong to the people completing them.
Example 4: Assessing healthcare experiences
Consider someone who visits a hospital and receives appropriate medical treatment but experiences significant difficulty navigating the appointment process.
They may encounter inaccessible communications, overwhelming sensory environments or insufficient involvement in decisions about their care.
Using the tool, they could identify gaps in Supporting Difference, Recognition or Participation. They might choose to share the completed assessment with a patient experience team or healthcare provider.
The purpose is not to replace formal complaints procedures or clinical assessments. It is to help individuals articulate aspects of their experience that might otherwise remain invisible.
Example 5: A community organisation assessing accessibility
A local neurodiversity organisation could invite people to use the tool to reflect on their experiences of public transport, libraries, recreational facilities or other community services. Different people may identify very different barriers.
One person may experience difficulties accessing information. Another may encounter inaccessible physical or sensory environments. A third may find that decisions about services are made without meaningful involvement from neurominorities.
The Declaration provides a common language for discussing these different experiences without requiring everyone to have identical needs.
Why personal assessment matters
Many existing inclusion assessments begin with organisations. They ask whether policies exist, whether training has been delivered or whether particular processes have been introduced. Those questions have value, but they do not necessarily establish whether people experience equality and equity within a specific environment.
The Neurodiversity Gap starts somewhere different.
It starts with the individual.
People decide which environment to assess, how they experience each principle, whether they wish to share their findings and what they want to do next.
This reflects a fundamental principle of ION’s approach: people should retain agency over matters affecting their lives.
Making equality visible without creating another bureaucracy
The Neurodiversity Gap is deliberately simple.
It is a downloadable form that can be printed, completed digitally or used alongside a notebook or phone to record observations.
People can use it once, repeat it periodically or assess different environments. A completed assessment can be kept privately, used to support a conversation or shared with an organisation.
The accompanying International Declaration provides the common principles on which the assessment is based.
The Declaration is a framework for equality, equity and advocacy, rather than a substitute for applicable legal rights and obligations.
A pilot that learns from its users
ION is initially making The Neurodiversity Gap available as a simple self-directed tool. We want to understand whether people find the assessment useful.
Users will therefore be invited to answer one optional question:
“How useful did you find The Neurodiversity Gap tool?”
Responses can be given on a scale from 1 to 10.
Over time, feedback may help determine whether additional resources, individualised assessments or voluntary collective evidence-gathering would be valuable.
From awareness to accountability
The launch of The Neurodiversity Gap also connects with ION’s wider work on moving from awareness towards accountability.
The International Declaration established principles in October 2021.
The Neurodiversity Gap provides a practical way for people to examine whether those principles are reflected in their lives. Individual scores are subjective and should not be used to rank organisations or countries.
Its immediate value is different: making personal experiences more visible, giving people a shared language for discussing inequality and supporting informed choices about what happens next.
As people use the tool in different environments, they may begin to identify patterns that were previously difficult to articulate.
Institutions receiving these assessments may gain insights into how their systems are experienced by the people they are intended to serve.
Equality begins with the people experiencing it
The Neurodiversity Gap provides a starting point. A way to reflect, identify gaps and make choices.
Because the same person can experience equality and equity in one environment and exclusion in another, understanding those differences is an essential part of creating systems that work for the full range of human variation.
Five principles. Your experience. Your assessment. Your choice.
The Neurodiversity Gap is a free tool from the Institute of Neurodiversity, grounded in the International Declaration of Neurodiversity launched in October 2021.
Download the assessment and Declaration from the ION website.