Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2025: From the revolving door to university
A huge proportion of people in the justice system are neurodivergent.
Neurodivergency – in particular the stigma and misunderstandings faced by neurodivergent people – is a major factor that pulls people into the cycle of crisis and crime.
Revolving Doors and our lived experience team have been at the forefront of the campaign to ensure that neurodivergent people can be diverted away from the revolving door and into the tailored, holistic support that would truly address their needs. Progress is being made across the system, including via the Ministry of Justice’s 2022 Neurodiversity Action Plan, shaped in part by the contributions and consultation of our members.
However, the individual stories of people with lived experience offer equally powerful stories of resilience, growth and change. To mark Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2025, we spoke to Revolving Doors member A* about her journey with neurodiversity following a dyslexia diagnosis earlier this year:
I’ve been at college for about five years now, but it’s taken me until 2025 to get the right support that I needed with the challenges I was facing.
When I was doing an access course I was receiving learning support. But I was also realising how much I was struggling as an adult more broadly. I kept on not quite failing my GCSEs but getting threes where I needed fours, meaning I’ve re-sat my exams twice: in June last year then November. I kept on getting the same: threes.
So, this time I’m doing it again in May and June this year, and I thought:
well, can I do something different?
A justice system that didn’t understand
I’ve always been misunderstood, and the underlying issues I had weren’t addressed. These things weren’t looked at. Even before I picked up a single drug, when I was in primary and secondary school nothing was picked up. I think maybe my lack of confidence was linked to not being able to read stuff properly or finding it hard being thorough.
It’s only now that I’m out of that revolving door that my neurodivergency can be looked at properly. But when you’re in the system, everything you do is so-called chaotic, or traumatic. You’re allowed to feel that you’re ‘less than’ – that you’re not a priority.
When you’re in the justice system they just want to work out what crime you’ve committed and if you’re guilty. All of this neurodivergency stuff is new to them.
It was just seen you’ve got an issue. You’ve either got an issue or you haven’t got an issue. It wasn’t like, oh, you’ve committed a crime. And being a drug addict, it was like I suffered with a moral deficiency too.
Getting the support that’s needed
So, this year I went in for all the tests. I’m going to be 44 this year – I’ve gone through education at school and on a previous college course, to only find out now that I’m dyslexic.
It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it?
I’m getting to understand being neurodivergent and I’m not so much of a ‘labels’ person, but if I can receive any support because I’m dyslexic I’m willing to take it. I want to move on.
Now I get extra time for my exams and I’ve got coloured overlays for my work and things like that to help me. There’s so much support I didn’t get before but I’m getting it now.
I’ve done functional skills English – all the levels, starting from the bottom and working my way up, and now I’m at my GCSEs. I’m hoping the outcome for my exams and more will be much better now because I’m going to feel a lot more comfortable. My needs are going to be met. I’ve just got to make sure I’m doing my bits of revision too.
And moving on, I am 100% going to uni this September. Starting from a foundation degree I’m working my way up. I’m going to be able to carry the support I’ve been able to access over with me to uni, but it’s only been through this part of my journey that I’ve had my dyslexia picked up.
Everything basically happened at the right time and without my diagnosis I would have been moving on without the support that I’ve got now. So, everything happens for the right reasons.
