The Design Trust, Verona Carpenter Architects, WIP Collaborative, and a network of disability advocates have partnered on a new initiative to reimagine New York City public spaces — streets, playgrounds, plazas, and more —  to better support neurodiversity

Neurodiversity is the diversity of human minds, the infinite variation in brain functioning that exists in our world. Neurodivergent people – including people with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyspraxia, dyslexia, intellectual disabilities, and mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, and PTSD – are often excluded from public space access because the planning and construction of our communities does not take into account the cognitive, sensory, and social variation inherent in our neurodiverse world. Public spaces are only accessible if they can be meaningfully used by the full range of the public. The Neurodiverse City seeks to learn from the experience and knowledge of neurodivergent self-advocates by building a broad-based coalition of partners, identifying ways to quantify and qualify neuroinclusive space, creating pilots for sensory design, and proposing meaningful policy change in key areas where these ideas can be scaled and broadened.