With more than 22 years as a writer and neurodiversity advocate under his belt, Jonathan Mooney talks about the core values of his work — from reframing “the problem” (not the person with learning differences rather the way the differences are treated) to the shift from remediation to universal design with accommodations for all learners.
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Transcript
My 22 years have been animated by a set of core values that I believe, if adopted by schools, communities, families, individuals, will lead to the world being better and more inclusive. And those values start first with reframing who are what we call the problem. The problem is not the person with a difference, the problem is the way the difference is treated by environments, systems, and by a culture designed for the idea that we should all be the same.
I advocate for a shift from remediation, which is all about trying to fix the person, to changing the environment around the person through accommodations, first and foremost, for folks with atypical brains and bodies, but ultimately, accommodations for all, universal design of instruction.
I advocate, ultimately, for reimagining the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, to not just be a piece of civil rights legislations for folks with different brains and bodies, but ultimately, a civil rights legislation that institutionalizes universal design and enumerates every single human being’s right to be different.
And ultimately, I advocate for challenging that deficit orientation, not what’s wrong, what’s right with you. And building systems of learning that don’t just remediate somebody’s academic deficit, but intentionally cultivate their strengths, gifts, and talents.
Teams where everyone is good at the same thing are bad teams. [laughs] Teams where everyone has a unique strength, gift, or talent that is combined with everybody else’s strength, gift, and talent those are teams that contribute, that solve problems, that innovate.
The solutions to our pressing problems won’t come from that normal person or trying to make people normal. The solution for our pressing problems comes not from normality but from difference. And so that’s our work, you know, that’s my work, and those are the core values that I’ve spent 22 years fighting for, and those are the core values I’ll spend 22 more years fighting for.
For more information about learning disabilities, please visit LDOnLine.org. This video was made possible by a partnership between the National Education Association and WETA.