You’re Invited: The NeuroJustice Summit 2026

Something is happening in October, and I want you there!

On October 9, 10, and 11, 2026, the inaugural NeuroJustice Summit will bring together neurodivergent people, advocates, clinicians, educators, researchers, and movement leaders for three full days of the most substantive, justice-centered neurodiversity programming that has ever been assembled in one place. Ten in the morning to six in the evening Central Time, each day, fully virtual, from wherever you are in the world. Breaks are built into each day, and you are warmly welcome to attend in whole or in part as your schedule and energy allow.

The NeuroJustice Summit is presented by Fish in a Tree: Center for Neurodiversity Education, Advocacy, and Activism and the Neurodiversity Coalition of America, the two organizations at the center of the neurodiversity justice movement in the United States. Fish in a Tree, which I founded with my husband Seth Hamstead, is a nonprofit center dedicated to neurodiversity education, advocacy, and activism grounded in the Neurodiversity Justice Framework. The Neurodiversity Coalition of America is a national nonprofit organization that brings together neurodivergent people, advocates, and allies to advance structural justice for neurodivergent communities across the United States. Together, these two organizations have spent years building the infrastructure of a movement, and the NeuroJustice Summit is where that infrastructure becomes a gathering.

The summit is a movement gathering organized around the question of what genuine structural justice for neurodivergent people requires, and what it will take to build it. If you have been reading NeuroJustice for any length of time, you already know the answer is justice, and this summit is where we talk about what that means and what it demands of us.

What Is the Neurodiversity Justice Framework?

The Neurodiversity Justice Framework is a paradigm I developed as an alternative to the awareness, acceptance, and inclusion models that have dominated the neurodiversity conversation for decades. Those models, however well-intentioned, locate the work of neurodiversity in the neurodivergent person: their awareness of their own condition, their acceptance of it, their inclusion into systems that were built without them in mind.

The Neurodiversity Justice Framework asks a different set of questions. It asks where the difficulty actually comes from, and the answer is the mismatch between neurodivergent neurology and the systems, institutions, and environments that were designed for a different neurological profile entirely. It asks who is responsible for that mismatch, and what accountability and repair actually look like. It asks what a genuinely neurodivergent-affirming world would require, and it insists that those questions be answered structurally rather than individually.

The framework centers epistemic repair, which means taking seriously what neurodivergent people know about their own experience and building systems that reflect that knowledge rather than overriding it. It centers neurodivergent-led institutional redesign, which means neurodivergent people at the table where decisions are made, as architects rather than token representatives. And it centers collective liberation, which means the recognition that neurodivergent people’s freedom is bound up with the freedom of every other community that has been systematically excluded from the design of the world they are expected to inhabit.

This is the framework the summit is built on, and it is the framework that every speaker, every NED Talk, every panel discussion, and every interactive session will be in conversation with across three days.

Who This Is For

The NeuroJustice Summit is for all neurodivergent people. It is for advocates and clinicians who are done with deficit-model frameworks and ready to think structurally. It is for educators, researchers, attorneys, and movement builders who understand that something fundamental has to change and want to be in the room where that conversation is happening. It is for the person who has spent years trying to understand why everything felt so hard when everyone around them seemed to manage just fine. It is for anyone who has ever read something on this Substack and felt, finally, that someone was saying the true thing.

If that is you, this summit was built for you.

Three Days of Programming

Each day runs from 10am to 6pm Central Time, with keynote presentations, presentations and interactive sessions, panel discussions, NED Talks, fireside chats, and special programming. Each speaker’s presentation will be followed by an informal roundtable with our in-person cohort gathering in New Orleans and our online guests, creating genuine conversation rather than one-directional delivery. Breaks are built into each day so you can process, rest, and return.

There will be special announcements across the three days that we cannot fully share yet, but that we believe are going to genuinely surprise and excite this community. Something significant is coming on the partnership front, and the summit is where we will share it publicly for the first time. There is also news about a podcast that has been in the works for months and that this community played a significant role in making possible. That announcement is coming very soon.

The speaker lineup is growing every day, and more confirmations will be announced in the weeks ahead. The quality and breadth of voices gathering around this event is extraordinary.

The Opening Keynote

I will open the summit with the opening keynote address, and it is the keynote I have been building toward for years.

As the architect of the Neurodiversity Justice Framework, I have spent years developing the theoretical and movement infrastructure of what neurodiversity justice actually requires. The opening keynote is my opportunity to share that vision in full, as a living argument for where this movement is going and why the justice paradigm is the only one adequate to what neurodivergent people actually need.

I will examine what the neurodiversity movement has accomplished and where the gaps remain, and why those gaps are structural problems rather than failures of effort or intention. I will address what epistemic repair means in practice, what neurodivergent-led institutional redesign looks like when it is done honestly, and what collective liberation requires of everyone in the room. And I will share my vision for the movement itself, where it is going and what it will take to get there.

Our NeuroCaster

Doug Blecher will be our Master of Ceremonies for the full three days of the summit, and we are calling his role exactly what it is: NeuroCaster.

Doug is the host of Autism Stories, one of the most respected and widely listened-to autistic-led podcasts in existence, built on the premise that autistic people are the true experts of the autistic experience. He founded Autism Personal Coach in 2013 when he recognized that support for autistic people essentially disappeared the moment they aged out of childhood services. Having Doug hold the space across all three days, introducing speakers, connecting conversations, and bringing his particular brand of steady, practiced attentiveness to neurodivergent voices, is going to set a tone for this summit that we are deeply proud of.

Confirmed Speakers

The NeuroJustice Summit 2026 speaker lineup is genuinely unlike anything the neurodiversity space has assembled before. More speakers are being confirmed every day and announcements are coming regularly, so stay close. Here is who is confirmed so far.

I will deliver the opening keynote address and lead a Neurodiversity Justice 101 session that gives every attendee a shared framework for the three days ahead.

Dr. Angela Kingdon, founder of the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, will deliver a presentation and interactive session on authentic autistic representation in podcasting, communications, and media, and its connection to neurodiversity justice and liberation. Angela has built one of the most respected autistic-led media networks in existence, and her perspective on what authentic representation requires and what it makes possible is something this movement needs to hear.

Michelle Mahoney is a neurodivergent activist, writer, educator, disability advocate, and the author of Strange Fellow Bobby: The Neurodivergence of Robert F. Kennedy, Sr., a work she wrote explicitly to combat disability erasure in history. She will deliver a presentation and interactive session on the importance of identifying neurodivergent historical figures and what that recognition means for the neurodiversity justice movement.

Dr. Krystal Cleary will deliver a presentation and interactive session on neurodiversity studies and the urgent need for its development and establishment in the United States, addressing one of the most significant gaps in the academic landscape for our movement.

Stephanie Bealer is a Clinical Mental Health Counselor, founding board member of the Neurodiversity Coalition of America, and a late-identified AuDHD woman who practices at Waxwing Psychological Services in Iowa. She brings both rigorous clinical training and deep lived experience to everything she does.

Charisma Starr is a thought leader and transformation expert with over 25 years of experience driving change in companies, teams, and individuals. One of the few openly autistic women in the legal field, she has shaped neurodiversity-related programming through involvement with the International Legal Technology Association, the Electronic Discovery Institute, Legal Geek, and organizations worldwide.

Sierra Grandy is a nationally recognized neurodiversity educator, disability rights advocate, mental health recovery speaker, attorney, and founder of Questify Your Life LLC. A founding member of the Neurodiversity Coalition of America, Sierra ran for the United States Congress in 2025 to bring disability and mental health issues to the center of political conversation.

Dr. Adam ‘Dutch’ Hazlett is a Fulbright Specialist, tenured humanities professor at Henry Ford College, and founder of the Humanities 101 Foundation. A late-identified autistic educator and disability advocate, Dutch has spent two decades at the intersection of humanities, disability advocacy, and equitable design, and his work on micro-accommodations and neuro-affirming learning environments has shaped how institutions across sectors understand accessibility and inclusion.

Tjerk Feitsma, founder and director of the Neurodiversity Foundation in the Netherlands, will deliver the closing keynote on neurodiversity justice as the future of the neurodiversity movement. Tjerk founded Neurodiversity Pride Day as an international movement and has advocated for neurodiversity at the Dutch Parliament. Having an international voice close the summit, one who is building this movement from the other side of the world, is exactly the note we want to end on.

NED Talks

One of the most exciting additions to the summit is NED Talks: Neurodiversity, Emergence, and Disruption. Our version of the short, high-impact, single-idea talk format. Ten to fifteen minutes. One idea, developed fully and delivered directly. Neurodivergent voices with something true and necessary to say, saying it. The NED Talks lineup is still being finalized and announcements are coming regularly. The call for proposals is still open. If you have an idea that belongs on a NED Talks stage, send your proposal to bridgette@fishinatreeglobal.org.

A Note on Sponsorship

The NeuroJustice Summit is an event worth investing in, and we are actively seeking organizational sponsors who want to align their name with this movement at its inaugural moment. Fish in a Tree: Center for Neurodiversity Education, Advocacy, and Activism is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and sponsorships may be tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. If your organization is interested in becoming a sponsor, please reach out directly at bridgette@fishinatreeglobal.org and we will send you our full sponsorship information.

Early Registration Is Open Now

Tickets to the NeuroJustice Summit 2026 are available now at early registration pricing of $150 for all three full days. That is half the full registration price, and it will not be available indefinitely.

Three full days of programming. October 9, 10, and 11, 2026. Ten in the morning to six in the evening Central Time. Virtual, from wherever you are. Attend in whole or in part as you are able.

The NeuroJustice Summit has been years in the making, and we believe it is going to be one of the most significant gatherings the neurodiversity justice movement has seen. We want you in the room.

Get your tickets at the link below. We will see you in October.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/neurojustice-summit-2026-virtual-tickets-1993026207036?aff=oddtdtcreator

Bridgette Hamstead is the Founding Director of Fish in a Tree: Center for Neurodiversity Education, Advocacy, and Activism, the Chairperson of the Board of the Neurodiversity Coalition of America, and the architect of the Neurodiversity Justice™ Framework. She publishes NeuroJustice at bridgettehamstead.substack.com.