Author: Tara Gallagher, PhD Researcher and Research Assistant with School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University
This blog forms part of the Symposium on Health, highlighting the role of initiatives such as this in promoting wellbeing and supporting the right to accessible and enjoyable education for all learners.
The term neurodiversity refers to a recognition that people experience and interact with the world in different ways, while cognisant that there is no single ‘correct’ way of doing so. Neurodiversity has become a central topic of discussion in society over the previous decade, with a shifting perspective of how we understand differences in the interactions between the brain and the lived world. This shift has led to a new paradigm of thought that moves away from understanding neurodivergences as medical ‘issues’ to be fixed, and towards an understanding that these differences are natural variations that should be included and recognised as valuable contributions to society.
In line with this broader shift, there has been a significant increase in the number of neurodivergent students in higher education. This rise reflects improved awareness, more accessible diagnostic pathways, and reduced stigma, enabling more students to identify and seek support. While this positive shift is a welcome development, it also highlights the need for institutions to evolve in how they recognise the values of neurodivergent learners. The growing and increasingly visible student population underscores the importance of moving beyond individual supports and towards more inclusive institutional practices across higher education.
Higher educational institutions have increasingly shifted their approach to supporting neurodivergent students through stronger policy commitments related to equality, diversity and inclusion. However, our research highlights a significant gap between the rhetoric at the policy level and the reality at the practice level. In this connection, the lived experience of students suggests high levels of stress, increased masking, burnout, isolation and poor educational attainment as a result of their neurodifference when compared to their neurotypical classmates. As such, research in collaboration with neurodivergent students details barriers to full participation in higher education.
Students, positioned as research collaborators, reported experiencing inconsistent and, at times, inadequate support services, often shaped by neurotypical assumptions of how neurodivergent individuals learn. These inconsistent and inadequate supports contribute to additional stress and barriers for neurodivergent learners. Many highlighted a lack of knowledge and understanding among university staff, identifying limited training as a key barrier to effective participation. While efforts to provide support were recognised, students felt that these were regularly grounded in neurotypical perspectives, rather than informed by neurodivergent experiences. This resulted in supports that did not meet the students’ needs to enable meaningful participation. For these students, this raised an important issue: how can universities promote accessibility and inclusion if staff are not properly informed or equipped to support neurodivergent learners? These lived experiences illustrate a gap within higher education, characterised by a disconnect between institutional intentions and lived realities.
Our work aims to address this gap by recognising neurodivergent students as ‘experts by experience’, and active partners in shaping institutional change. The ‘Understanding Neurodiversity in Higher Education’ toolkit is an open educational resource designed to support staff, students, and anyone interested in learning more about neurodiversity in higher education. Structured through a series of accessible, neurodivergent-informed modules, this toolkit offers guidance, insights, and tools to support more inclusive teaching and learning practices.
This project builds on the lived experience exploration of neurodivergent students in higher education, supported by the 2022 Teaching and Learning Fellowship, where we gathered lived experience insights through our co-participatory global cafe approach. These findings highlighted both the challenges that students face and the changes that they wish to see.
From these findings, we collaborated with neurodivergent students at every stage to create a co-produced neurodiversity teaching toolkit, with students playing a central role in shaping its direction and content. This toolkit provides a space to build understanding, reflect on teaching and learning practice, and engage with neurodiversity in a more neurodivergent-informed, meaningful way. This toolkit not only acts as a space for learning but also models best practice in accessible design, demonstrating a best-practice approach to presenting information, grounded in neurodivergent experience.
What makes this resource unique is its co-created foundation: Developed in collaboration with neurodivergent students and a neuro-mixed research team, it centres lived experience throughout. This ensures that the content reflects an evidence-based framework that advances a scientifically robust lived experience model. This structure moves away from traditional neurotypical-led approaches; instead, it embeds the voices of those the resource is designed to support. By placing co-creation at its core, the toolkit not only shares neurodivergent-informed knowledge but models an inclusive way of working, highlighting lived experience and shared expertise. Inclusive and tailored approaches to learning not only support the students’ educational attainment but also contribute to improved student wellbeing through the reduction of unnecessary stressful barriers within the learning environment.
Formally launched in March 2026, the toolkit has been adopted by the Higher Education Authority as part of its Open Courses: Recognising Professional Development initiative. This toolkit was supported by several initiatives within Maynooth University, including the Centre for Teaching and Learning, the CTL SPARK Initiative, and the MU – UDL & U: Building a Culture of Inclusion project, as well as the School of Law and Criminology.
The Understanding Neurodiversity in Higher Education toolkit represents an important step towards fully inclusive and accessible practice to support neurodivergent students. Grounded in lived experience and co-creation, it acts as a central resource for both practical guidance and as an inclusive practice educational model. This toolkit is intended to support reflection, learning and inclusive development within higher education. The toolkit invites us all to engage with neurodiversity in more informed and responsive ways, to consider how inclusive practices can be embedded in everyday teaching and learning in a real sense.
The toolkit is now available to explore and use openly, and we welcome engagement from all those interested in inclusive education as we continue working towards more inclusive learning environments.
