Judy Singer

Judy Singer identifies as being in the middle of 3 generations of women “somewhere on the Autistic Spectrum".

Her 1998 Honours Thesis (University of Technology Sydney) was the pioneering study of the emergence of the "Autism Spectrum/Asperger Syndrome" as a new category of disability from a sociological rather than a medical perspective. Singer argued that Asperger Syndrome was not a new medical condition, but a "socially-constructed" category of disability, which emerged due to social changes in the post-modern era.

By that time, the Autistic Self-Advocacy Movement was already gathering strength on the internet and showing every sign of becoming the last great Identity Politics movement to emerge from the 20th century. In her thesis, Singer proposed the term “Neurodiversity” as a way of promoting and legitimizing the new movement. The name caught on because it encapsulated two of the leading trends of the era. First, the hard science of neurology was eclipsing the psycho-therapeutic tradition that had failed to deliver, especially for autistics. At the same time there was increasing awareness that biodiversity of all kinds was critical to the survival of the planet.

Judy was the founder, via the internet, of the world's first support group for people raised by autistic parents. She was Secretary of Sydney's Inner West Autism and Asperger's Support Group for several years, and co-founded ASteen, Sydney’s largest independent social club for teenagers on the spectrum.