Jonathan Mooney

Jonathan Mooney is an award-winning writer, entrepreneur, and activist with dyslexia, who did not learn to read until he was 12 years old. Jonathan has spent his professional career as a social entrepreneur developing organizations, programs, and initiatives to improve the lives of marginalized groups. In 1997, as an undergraduate at Brown University, Jonathan co-founded Project Eye-To-Eye, a non-profit advocacy organization for students with learning differences that works with more than 10,000 parents, educators, and students.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney talks about being treated like the “stupid, crazy, lazy” kid because of his dyslexia and ADHD and how a more equitable and inclusive education system — and world — would be a game changer in the short and long term for kids with learning differences.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney talks about how society needs to move away from the moralization of atypical brains and bodies to a more science-based understanding of what drives people’s challenges.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney remembers his 3rd grade teacher, who bucked the “normal is good, different is bad” school system.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney says, “The only ‘normal’ learner is a learner you don’t know that well,” then discusses changes that could revolutionize the education system — from strength-based IEP planning to accommodations for all learners.

Mooney knows that encouragement and validation can be incredibly healing for a kid with learning differences.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney says that instead of people with learning differences being asked some variation on “What’s your problem?” multiple times a day, people should be asking, “What’s the school’s problem, the work place environment’s problem, the problem with a culture where normal is good and right and difference is deficient?”

Throughout history, the word and social construct of “normal” has perpetuated the marginalization of whole swaths of human beings including black and brown people, indigenous populations, people who identify as LGBTQ+, and people with atypical brains and bodies.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney talks about how we, as society, need to integrate neurodiversity into our broader conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

While at Brown University, Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney co-founded Eye to Eye, which started out as a public service project and is now a highly successful national mentoring movement that pairs kids who have learning differences like dyslexia and ADHD with college and high school mentors who have been similarly diagnosed.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney shares an incredible story of one of heroes in his life who encouraged him, believed in him, and kept him accountable as he found his way in college because of—not despite of—his learning differences.

With more than 22 years as a writer and neurodiversity advocate under his belt, Jonathan Mooney talks about the core values of his work, from reframing “the problem”—not the person with learning differences; rather the way the differences are treated—to the shift from remediation to universal design with accommodations for all learners.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney says that his basic message to kids who learn differently is “normal sucks.”

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney talks about how discovering WETA’s LDOnLine while in college was a revelation for him.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney says his 4’11” mother who swore like a truck driver and sounded like Minnie Mouse was always in his corner advocating for him, believing in him, fighting for him, and celebrating him.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney talks about the power of educators using a strength-based IEP planning model for students with learning differences like dyslexia and ADHD so that education is not just about what is wrong, but more importantly, what is right.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney says we need to move away from the remediation model. 

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney says the words “disability” and “disorder” in diagnoses like learning disability and ADHD pathologize differences.

Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney says that we should be asking “What’s the school’s problem?” or “What’s the work environment’s problem?” in a world where normal is good and right and difference is deficient.

As a graduate of Brown University, Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney is often asked how he overcame his dyslexia and ADHD in order to thrive in college. What he says needs to be overcome or fixed is, in fact, how differences are treated in environments designed around the idea that we are all the same.

Biography

With the publication of Learning Outside The Lines when he was 23, Jonathan has established himself as one of the foremost leaders in the neurodiversty and the learning revolution. His second book, The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal was published in the spring of 2007 to outstanding reviews in The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and many other national publications. Both books are considered foundational texts in the disability rights movement, the inclusive education movement, and the learning revolution and are used in undergraduate and graduate program at universities and colleges across the country including Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and Teachers College, Columbia University.

Jonathan’s work has been widely recognized for its innovation and social impact. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, HBO, NPR, ABC News, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe. Jonathan is a widely sought-after speaker. He has spoken to kids in kindergarten, corporate execs, high school students, Ivy League professors, social workers, librarians, inmates, designers, parents, teachers, and everyone in-between about re-imagining education for the 21th century, inclusion, neurodiversty, the myth of normalcy, youth empowerment, and much more. Learn more at the official Jonathan Mooney website.

Jonathan is a graduate of Brown University, with an honors degree in English Literature. 

This video was produced by LD OnLine, our sister website all about learning disabilities and ADHD.

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