Petition to make neurodiversity a separate protected characteristic in the UK

Incidentally I think it’s fairly clear based on case law that neurodiverse conditions are disabilities for the purposes of the act. The issue with the equality act is more one of awareness and enforcement. Lots of people and organisations subject to the act don’t understand it well, especially in the context of neurodiverse conditions. And whether or not they understand it the process of holding them to account when they brake the law is arduous.

if you want to do something productive I suggest you either:

1. Petition the EHRC to release autism / neurodiverse  specific technical guidance on the equality act.
2. Petition NAS to issue a guide to autism and the equality act (for organisations not autistic people) because EHRC will probably refuse to do so.
3. petition parliament for qualified one way cost shifting for equality act cases so we can get no win no fee lawyers to help with discrimination.

The world is increasingly filled with nonsensical madness that I simply cannot fathom!....and yet we drive around, and fly drones on Mars.

After 5 people sign it only then does a human being look at the petition and decide whether or not to manually approve it.

Interesting (and ridiculous!). Thanks for the info.

Sorry for perceiving your post as "bot-like.". I have no problem with any human, but have a pathological hatred of bots and spam.

May I suggest that you start your own new thread with this subject matter - probably on the adult forum.

Again, please accept my sincere apology for your gruff and unfriendly "first encounter" on these pages.  Every human opinion or human-generated topic is welcome in this place, most especially considering the backstory and context that you have now kindly indicated.

Welcome - and I hope you receive plenty of feedback on this matter.

Kind regards, Number.

Having done a number of these petitions myself I can confirm the first 5 people to sign don’t get to read it on the website. They expect you to get your friends to sign it … this discriminating against those of us who have no friends.

My story : 

I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety at 15 and never really realised my triggers until I was pushed to an extreme to get an institution to make accommodations for me. It completely distorted my sense of self because I never thought of myself as disabled ... The environment I was in ( mostly social environment where extreme bullying was occurring ) was the problem. So I believe that by understanding Neurodiversity as protected characteristic we are deeply looking at ones relationship to their environment. I have some autistic traits but never thought of myself as autistic or neurodivergent just neurodiverse like the rest of the human beings on this planet who given certain maladaptive environments and social behaviours can develop depression and anxiety and PTSD. 

So I hope to start a conversation and happy to hear feedback and different views on the topic.

Heya you are absolutely right ! Apologies they still haven't approved to publish it as it needs to get 5 emails minimum but I am a real person my name is Luisa 

This post looks suspiciously like a bot?  You give no details of what "your" petition is nor what it is for.....and if one does follow your link, the only information I can readily see is that it says "sign Luisa Pires's petition."

If you want help from "us" lot, we require explanations.  You are in the home of independent and cautionary thinking people  here.  My money is on the bot hypothesis - this is your first and only post - ever.

Sentinel Number.

PS...To any real humans that find this, it's lovely to stumble upon wise and pithy wisdom from Plastic below....God rest his glorious soul....while hunting bots in the long grass!

How far did this get? I am trying to do the same but from an intersectional perspective.

Here is my petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/633587/sponsors/new?token=oarwvjbWIElOFB2V7Fp1

When everyone is protected, no-one is.

I think we are in danger of having so many "protected" characteristics, groups, etc that it's in danger of losing all meaning. 

...In the context of this Forum, to "PM" means to send a "Private Message". Go to your Profile page and select "friends"...

...Also, you can click upon any User, and then try to "Friend" them, by sending them a PM. This can be done as many times as you like, but does not necessarily mean that the recipient will (or can) respond (!)...

'Hope this helps' (I cannot really do it myself, my devices are too old.)...

Hi DragonCat

 did you get anywhere with this? (I don't know what PM means)

I support this. We need to move away from seeing Neurodiversity as a Disabilty and instead as a difference (like our gender, religion or sexual orientation). Did you manage to post the petition?

How's this project going?

There were a few interesting links another thread on autism and employment that made me think of this.

The TUC guide on Autism in the workplace by Janine Booth is very good, and of particular interest may be sections 5 (examples of discrimination and bullying at work), 9 (hate crime, disturbing) and 12 (law as it is). It's really taking the view that autism should be seen as a disability just for the protections afforded, although mentions autistic strengths. The article by an occupational health worker on the other hand has a couple of examples of disciplinary procedures that you could think of as differences of interpretation rather than disability: it seems the autistic person may have been right, but was more junior. Getting unions involved in the petition might help, too....

Among the autistic advocates I know 'autistic' is the preferred term, being 'identity first'. I don't have a big problem with other terms personally, but identity-first certainly seems to be the way things are going.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1362361315588200

, I see your comment above includes a lot of copied text, some in big fonts, and comes at the end of an open discussion about something else. I particularly worry that it might confuse people as the petition to make neurodiversity a separate protected characteristic is not yet online, or discourage people from taking part in the subject of this thread. I appreciate having one thread for one subject so that we can communicate clearly. I also value the order that comes from people considering the rules of the forum (see rule 5).

Would you be willing to delete your posting, please? (I'd then delete this one.)

Cassandro said:

In an ideal world equality legislation wouldn't be necessary, as every person mistreated or discriminated against would have allies.

In an ideal world, equality legislation wouldn't be necessary because there would be no discrimination!

Even if someone has allies, if there's no law to protect them, then they're still open to discrimination.

Handi-andis said:

Hence if something protects people up to a border near what the majority of population class as neurotypical then people on the other side of the border could see the protection as discriminatory.

The Equality Act as it is now protects neurodivergent people only up to the border of where they cease to be considered disabled. Those who aren't disabled must live without any protection from mistreatment.

Adding neurodiversity as a protected characteristic would protect everyone from discrimination arising from where they are on the neurodiversity spectrum (i.e. on both sides of the border). That includes protection for neurotypicals (in the unlikely event that they would ever be mistreated for being neurotypical). Nobody would have any reason to complain about it as everyone would have the same protection, which is not how it is now.

This would not give any group more rights than any other group. Everyone should have an equal chance for happiness and fulfillment, but that is not how the world works. Some groups are discriminated against by others, and that is why the Equality Act is needed in the first place. The protection only comes into play when someone is discriminated against or harassed, in which case the protection would be against that type of treatment.

Therefore, there is no way that neurotypicals could claim that this is discriminatory against them, unless they were to complain that they would no longer have the freedom to harass their neurodivergent counterparts as they please, which would no doubt be a considerable blow for some of them.....