I am a special needs mom, and to me, my child is the most perfect person there could ever be. While I love, accept, and enable him to reach his fullest potential, I cannot promise him a world that will always do the same. Not That Different is the movement I am leading to create a more compassionate and inclusive world for him—and for everyone like him.
Starting from a comic book in the same name- ‘Not That Different’, hailed by BBC Worldwide as ‘A Hope For Autistic Kids’, our imprint has published over 11 books by neurodiverse authors and caregivers- including my own amazon bestseller- I see you I get you- a selfcare book designed for caregivers.
We are thrilled that our books have managed to mainstream ‘inclusion’, endorsed by celebrities and thought leaders – while also being selected for Global Book Fair Awards’24, Times AutHer Award’24 and winning Children’s Book Trust First Prize for socio-emotional learning. We have been invited twice to talk at the Stanford Neurodiversity Project but with all of this, we know we have a long way to go.. Learn more about our mission here.
I am also pursuing a PhD titled “Assisted Living Models for Middle-Income Neurodivergent Adults in India: A Socioeconomic and Policy Analysis of Diverse Collaborations.” This research is rooted in my own lived experience as a mother and activist, and seeks to address the urgent “What after us?” question that haunts countless families. My aim is to study and design collaborative frameworks—parent-led, NGO-managed, CSR-supported, and policy-enabled—that can provide affordable, dignified, and sustainable assisted living options for neurodivergent adults. By combining global best practices with India’s socioeconomic realities, the study will create replicable models that ensure inclusion, safety, and economic participation while placing families and caregivers at the heart of the solution. In doing so, it aspires not only to fill a massive policy and social gap in India but also to build a blueprint that can be scaled nationally and adapted across other emerging economies.
NeuroUnity is our flagship property to bring neurodiversity awareness and inclusion into the mainstream. It began with the simple idea that workplaces, schools, and families need more than awareness—they need tools, training, and communities of support to make inclusion real. Over the years, NeuroUnity has worked with leading corporates like Amazon, GE, Infosys, Merck, BNP Paribas, and United Breweries to design and deliver trainings on autism, neurodivergence, and caregiver inclusion. Beyond corporate workshops, it has created safe spaces for parents through financial planning and caregiving bootcamps, resource-sharing, and peer support circles. At its heart, NeuroUnity is both an advocacy and action initiative: building empathy, breaking stigma, and enabling organisations and families to see neurodivergent individuals not through a lens of deficit, but of dignity, capability, and opportunity.
I lead the workshops on the following:
- Corporate Workshops on Disability Inclusion at Workplace.
- Corporate Workshops on Caregiver Inclusion at Workplace.
- Corporate Workshops on Neurodiversity Awareness and Inclusion.
- Everyday Inclusion in Classrooms for school teachers.
- Everyday Inclusion at Campus.
- Handling Neurodiversity at Public Spaces. (Malls, Airports, Public Arenas, Cinema Halls)
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Mugdha Kalra 