Neuroinclusion as imagination: from 'knowing for' to 'imagining with'

This paper argues that contemporary approaches to neuroinclusion in education, employment, and public policy remain dominated by technocratic and compliance-oriented logics that treat neurodivergence as a deficit to be managed through diagnosis, accommodation, and legal adjustment. Although such frameworks have advanced formal rights, they often reproduce neuronormative assumptions and position policymakers and professionals as experts ‘knowing for’ neurodivergent people, rather than designing systems with them. This paper challenges that orientation by reconceptualising neuroinclusion as an imaginative and participatory practice of policymaking. 

It proposes a shift from ‘knowing for’ to ‘imagining with,’ where lived experience is recognised as legitimate policy knowledge and neurodivergent individuals act as co-authors of institutional futures. It asks policymakers, public institutions, and employers to embed neuroinclusion as a participatory, imaginative practice rather than a compliance exercise.

The paper develops a cyclical process model of neuroinclusion as imagination, which we define as the capacity to see beyond current institutional arrangements, linking policy challenges to co-design interventions and learning-oriented outcomes, reframing policy as an iterative form of democratic inquiry rather than a static artefact. . 

Through illustrative cases from global governance, national initiatives, higher education, and corporate practice, it demonstrates how participatory design, shared ownership, and reflexive accountability can embed neuroinclusive imagination structurally within institutions. These practices move beyond symbolic consultation to policy co-ownership, supported by infrastructures of recognition, resources, relationships, and continuous learning. By positioning imagination as both an ethical stance and a practical method, the paper contributes a novel framework for designing more adaptive, just, and innovative institutions.