Could using AI to filter Government consultation responses lead to “algorithmic silencing” of neurodivergent voices?

By: An ADHD Mum

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For the last year, parents have been asked to participate in Department for Education SEND faux “conversations“, unsatisfactory webinars, and numerous impenetrable consultations that only the most determined can navigate. The consultation questions in particular seemed to take the acceptance of the proposals as a given, with no specific opportunity given to comment on the loss of disabled children’s rights. Initially, we were told these decisions had already been taken, something DfE was forced to backtrack on.

The question of who is able to respond, and consultation accessibility, is an important one, and it’s not just about the Easy Read, the BSL, and alternative formats. One of the largest SEND cohorts is those navigating neurodivergence, including conditions like dyslexia, in a neurotypical world. And the thing about neurodivergence is that it doesn’t usually come out of nowhere. Parents or grandparents may not have their own diagnosis, but everyone around them knows which side of the family (if not both) it came from. Their communication styles, ways of understanding, speech patterns, stream-of-consciousness writing, and behaviours are all tell-tale signs once you know what you’re looking for.

So when it comes to giving responses to consultations built by and for the neurotypical majority, ND people are at an immediate disadvantage, especially now AI is being used to analyse responses. If your communication style doesn’t fit the algorithm, those responses may end up being filtered out; in effect, silenced. One mum who has ADHD has raised this with us and written her thoughts. Do you agree? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

Hear our voices: Why making consultations accessible is more than just Easy Read. By an ADHD mum

Navigating the UK’s education and welfare systems as a neurodivergent parent is an exhausting, hypervigilant battle against invisible institutional barriers. For parents who manage conditions like ADHD and severe dyslexia, the system presents an immediate wall of paper trails, complex online portals, hidden consultation timelines, and rigid legal jargon.

We are told that public consultations are our democratic pathway to speak out, protect our children, and challenge systemic failures. However, the modern reality of how our feedback is processed introduces a serious design flaw that I see as an algorithmic silencing of neurodivergent voices.

Government public consultations are increasingly processed using automated electronic filtration systems and AI-driven thematic analysis software. These algorithms are built by corporate contractors who train them to look for specific patterns, to recognise, categorise, and count standard, linear, and highly institutionalised text structures. They look for the polished phrasing used by professional lobby groups, local authorities, and corporate entities.

Consequently, these automated tools actively mis-categorise, dilute, or completely filter out the complex, non-standard, and non-linear text responses frequently submitted by neurodivergent individuals.

Neurodivergent communication styles

When you have ADHD or dyslexia, your communication style is naturally different. For many of us, when we are emotional, stressed, or fighting for our children’s safety, our thoughts can sometimes come out muddled, non-linear, or framed through deeply personal, raw lived experiences. Our responses can also be influenced by unprocessed trauma from how our experiences have impacted us.

To an automated algorithm trained on sterile corporate data text, a neurodivergent response looks like “unstructured noise.” Our input and experiences get filed away, mislabelled, or entirely erased from the official evidence chain, before policy decisions are ever finalised.

Providing a simplified informational booklet on a website does absolutely nothing to satisfy the state’s statutory duties if the background processing software is systematically blind to neurodivergent communication styles. Deploying automated filtration tools without strict, human-centred safeguards means families enmeshed in the daily reality of SEND crises are effectively barred, by the state itself, from the democratic machinery meant to protect them.

Promoted

My own experience

My own experience exposes this structural failure. To get what I wanted to say safely onto the official Parliamentary record, I had to cite the Equality Act just to bypass their standard web forms. I had to use an AI myself—as a tool to interpret and format my speech—and rely on parliamentary staff to manually tone down my raw words so they would fit neatly into their rigid criteria boxes.

This creation of a permanent “digital gatekeeper” means the system hears only those who speak its language. If an isolated, vulnerable parent has to deploy an artificial brain just to translate a human heart into legal jargon, the framework is fundamentally broken.

It allows the state to hide behind popular, media-friendly initiatives like school breakfast clubs while quietly rolling out massive, integrated digital tracking networks in the background. It allows policymakers to claim that no one raised concerns simply because the software filtered out the voices of the neurodivergent parents who tried to object.

Baking in unfairness must be stopped

We cannot allow automated tracking algorithms and corporate data-scraping contracts to dictate the future of our frontline support, school budgets, and Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans.

True systemic fairness requires direct, human-centred oversight. We must actively fight to build accessible, community-led pathways where raw human stories and lived experiences are valued over institutional paperwork.

If the system continues to count us out based on how we format our text, it is not a public consultation—it is an algorithmic exclusion.

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About
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Tania Tirraoro

Founder, Co-Director at Special Needs Jungle

Founder & co-director of Special Needs Jungle. (She/Her) Autistic parent of two young autistic adults Devoted Grandma. National SEND advisor, journalist & author. Tania also runs a PR, web & social media consultancy, SocialOro Media.
She is a rare disease & chronic pain patient advocate with Ehlers Danlos syndrome.

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