Neurotypical is a construct that describes people whose brain development and ways of thinking, learning, or interacting fit within societal expectations of “normal.” It refers to how the majority of people process the world, and whose experiences and needs are typically centred and assumed in everyday systems, education, and culture.
A brief history
The term emerged in the 1990s within autistic communities as a tongue-in-cheek way to describe the “default” group whose experiences were treated as standard. It was a deliberate flip: instead of autistic people being pathologised, the majority were simply named as one neurotype among many.
Over time, it became a useful shorthand in the neurodiversity movement to highlight how systems, norms, and environments are built around certain cognitive styles while marginalising others.