Neurodivergent Support Needs are better represented around a Wheel, not along a Linear Spectrum

For a long time, the support needs of Autistic people were often visualised as falling on a particular place on a linear spectrum. We might have once imagined a single line, with “less autistic” at one end and “more autistic” at the other – or perhaps used the outdated terms of low functioning and high functioning.

However, our understanding of neurodiversity, particularly autism, has grown significantly. Thanks to ongoing research and, crucially, an open dialogue with the autistic community, we now recognise that this is far more nuanced and diverse. The old linear model of “Less and More” simply doesn’t capture the complexity of an individual’s unique profile.

The Power of the Diversity Wheel

Instead of a line, it’s far more helpful to think of the strengths and support needs for Autistic people as being represented on segments of a Diversity Wheel. A wheel, for example the model used by autistic cartoonist Rebecca Burgess, offers a visual representation of how a person’s abilities, strengths, and support needs are multifaceted and can shift across different key areas.

The wheel highlights that a person doesn’t just fall on one point of a spectrum. Instead, they have a dynamic and unique profile across multiple dimensions, emphasizing that every neurodivergent individual has a unique combination of strengths and challenges across all domains.

One of the most powerful concepts the Diversity Wheel helps us understand is fluctuating capacity. This means that a neurodivergent person’s ability to manage, participate, and engage can change dramatically, even within the same day.

Picture the wheel:

• The outer edge of the circle represents times or situations where the young person is able to actively engage and make good use of available supports.
• The inner section reflects times or situations where additional strategies, adjustments, and increased support are necessary.

What Causes These Shifts? These changes in capacity are influenced by a wide array of factors, including:

• Who they are with: Different people (family, friends, teachers, strangers) can impact comfort and stress levels.
• What they are doing: A preferred, engaging activity versus a difficult, stressful, or overwhelming task.
• What they are feeling: Emotional states like anxiety, overstimulation, or excitement.
• The time of day: Energy levels, sensory input, and routines can all play a role.

Furthermore, we must always remember the impact of co-occurring conditions (such as ADHD, anxiety, or intellectual disability), which add further layers to a person’s unique profile.

A co-occurring condition acts as a multiplier, intensifying the scores on multiple domains of the wheel beyond what the core autism characteristics would indicate alone.

For example:

• Intensified Spikes: Areas like Executive Functioning, Sensory Processing, and Emotional Regulation become much more severely impacted (or “spiked”). E.g. ADHD severely spikes the Executive Functioning domain, while Anxiety severely spikes the Sensory and Emotional Regulation domains.
• Contradictory Needs: AuDHD (Autism + ADHD) brains experience a conflicting profile where the person has a deep need for routine (Autism) but a biological inability to maintain it (ADHD), leading to chronic stress and burnout.
• Higher Baseline Stress: The co-occurrence raises the overall level of daily stress and mental fatigue, lowering the individual’s threshold for coping. This makes shutdowns and meltdowns more frequent, dramatically impacting the Emotional Regulation domain.

The Diversity Wheel underscores a fundamental truth: Every person is different.

To truly support autistic people effectively, we must move past generalised assumptions and embrace an individualised approach.

Recognising a person’s need for accommodations and support as dynamic, rather than fixed, is at the core of true person-centred and respectful care. By recognizing this, we respect the individual’s current reality rather than boxing them into a static diagnosis or a historical assessment.

If we respect the fluctuations in a person’s performance instead of judging a sudden difficulty as an “inability” or “non-compliance,” we understand it as a real-time need that requires adaptation in support.

If we focus on capacity, we move away from a fixed label that often highlights deficits. A dynamic view allows us to continually map and leverage emerging or current strengths.

A person whose needs are seen as fixed is often told what they need. If we respect an individual’s autonomy and choice, we encourage the individual to actively communicate their needs in the moment (“I need ear defenders right now,” or “I can handle this task today, but not tomorrow”), which is fundamental to autonomy and self-advocacy.

This perspective—seeing the person as they are and not as a fixed diagnosis—is what allows support to be truly helpful, sustainable, and respectful.

To access the excellent cartoon by Rebecca Burgess on the Neurodiversity Wheel, click here