If there is one idea we want to leave at the end of the weekday journal, it is that inclusion cannot mean inviting neurodivergent people into a system on the condition that they become better at behaving as though they are not neurodivergent.
Too much support still works like that. We teach people to hide movement, tolerate unnecessary sensory load, organise information in the approved way, communicate with the expected rhythm and prove competence through processes that may have very little to do with the quality of the outcome. When they manage it, we describe them as coping. When they cannot, we describe the difficulty as theirs.
We are much more interested in what happens when we separate the standard that actually matters from the route traditionally used to reach it. Good judgement matters. Safe practice matters. Clear communication matters. Accountability matters. There are often several legitimate ways to produce those things, and neuroinclusive systems make enough room for people to use the route that allows them to contribute at their best.
That does not mean there are no boundaries or expectations. Neurodivergence is not an exemption from the impact we have on other people, and reasonable adjustment does not mean every preference becomes a requirement. It means we become more thoughtful about which parts of a process are essential and which are simply familiar.
The month has also reminded us that understanding needs to go both ways. We have become better at explaining what helps us, at recognising when our enthusiasm becomes somebody else’s workload and at taking responsibility for the places where our ADHD can affect the people around me. Inclusion works best when it creates more honest conversations, not when it replaces one set of assumptions with another.
What we want for neurodivergent social workers is not a workplace with no structure. We want structures that are clear enough to reduce unnecessary ambiguity and flexible enough not to confuse one working style with professionalism. I want people to be able to use a fidget, ask why, need something in writing, take a different route through a problem or admit that an apparently small task has become stuck without those things being treated as evidence of lesser capability.
Barry has spent the month reminding us that the web does not become stronger because every thread is identical. It becomes stronger because different threads connect, carry different loads and support one another in a structure that works as a whole. That feels like a much better ambition for inclusion than asking everybody to look the same while they work.
Tomorrow the Monsters get their Ball, which feels like a more appropriate ending than defeating any of them. They are part of the story, but they were never the whole story.