Neurodiversity is a "controversial concept [that] ... regards atypical neurological development as a normal human difference". According to Jaarsma and Welin (2011), the "neurodiversity movement was developed in the 1990s by online groups of (high-functioning) autistic persons. It is now associated with the struggle for the civil rights of all those diagnosed with neurological or neurodevelopmental disorders".

Biodiversity is an accepted phenomenon in the animal kingdom. The concept of neurodiversity in humans was initially embraced by some individuals with autism and people with related conditions. Subsequent groups applied the concept to conditions unrelated (or non-concomitant) to autism such as bipolar disorder, ADHD,schizophrenia,circadian rhythm disorders, developmental speech disorders, Parkinson's disease, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and Tourette's syndrome.

The term is attributed to Judy Singer, a sociologist with Asperger syndrome, and according to an article in New York magazine, was first published by Harvey Blume. The earliest published use of the term appears in an article in The Atlantic by Harvey Blume on September 30, 1998:

Ari Ne'eman is an American autism rights activist who cofounded the Autistic Self Advocacy Network in 2006. On December 16, 2009 President Barack Obama announced that Ari Ne'eman would be appointed to the National Council on Disability. After an anonymous hold was lifted, Ne'eman was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate to serve on the Council on June 22, 2010. He currently chairs the Council's Policy & Program Evaluation Committee. Ne'eman has a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, making him the first person with an autistic spectrum disorder to serve on the council.

Ne'eman grew up in East Brunswick Township, New Jersey, where he attended East Brunswick High School. He displayed autistic traits at an early age, and eventually developed an interest in public policy. He engages in stimming, such as pacing and hand-flapping. He also has sensory processing issues that affect his reactions to certain sounds and textures.

Early in childhood, Ne'eman was verbally advanced and socially isolated. Like many children on the autism spectrum, he was bullied, and in his early teens he struggled with anxiety and would engage in self-harm by picking his skin. For a period in high school, Ne'eman went to a segregated special education school. There, he was frustrated by the segregated school because he felt it was a "day care" that focused on "normalizing" disabled students instead of challenging them academically. He said that he and his fellow students "were being written off because of what society expects of people with disabilities." Using his advocacy skills, Ne'eman was eventually able to return to a mainstream school.

John Elder Robison (born in 1957) is the author of the 2007 memoir Look Me in the Eye, detailing his life living with Asperger syndrome. He is the elder brother of memoirist Augusten Burroughs, who also wrote about his childhood in the memoir Running with Scissors.

Robison was born in Athens, Georgia while his parents were attending the University of Georgia. He is the son of poet Margaret Robison and late John G. Robison, former head of the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After John Elder's birth, the family lived in Philadelphia, Seattle, and Pittsburgh, where his brother Augusten Burroughs (born Christopher) was born. In 1966 he and his family settled in Amherst, Massachusetts where he spent most of his childhood.

Robison dropped out of Amherst High School in the tenth grade, to join the Amherst-based rock band, Fat. Robison would later receive an honorary diploma from The Monarch School in Houston in May 2008. “It is unconscionable to me as an educator,” said Dr. Marty Webb, founder and head of The Monarch School, “that someone of John's intelligence, competence and life achievement is walking around without a high school diploma.” Monarch, dedicated to providing an innovative, therapeutic education for individuals with neurological differences, has collaborated with Robison on the development of teacher guides for his best seller, Look Me in the Eye as well as the sequel, Be Different.