Diverse Minds Advocacy

Danica (Dani) Ross had spent more than two decades in Public Relations, specializing in strategic communications, when life threw her a curve ball – her daughter’s 4th grade teacher told her and her husband, Steven, that she thought their daughter, Grayson, might be on the spectrum. What?! Grayson was 10! How could this be happening now? They were shocked, and to be totally honest, a little skeptical. But they held this teacher in very high regard and so they moved swiftly to have her evaluated. A few quick months later, Grayson was diagnosed with Asperger’s and ADHD (and has subsequently been diagnosed with Pathological Demand Avoidance). Life turned upside down in an instant.

The biggest challenge the Rosses faced was school. Grayson and her brother had been at a private K-12 prep school since they were each in kindergarten – a school all four Rosses absolutely loved. But it was clear that to continue to thrive, Grayson was going to need accommodations. Dani and Steven found themselves in the unenviable position of having to advocate for a child within a private school that has no legal obligation whatsoever to provide any type of accommodation or intervention. Their biggest fear was that the school would say: we’re terribly sorry, but we just can’t support a child with her needs.

The time came to disclose the diagnosis and discuss the go-forward plan with the school. Dani reverted to her skills as a communicator and approached it like she would any Public Relations problem. Through several discussions with Steve and Grayson’s providers, Dani first got really clear on an itemized list of what she wanted the school to do for Grayson (the outcomes). From there, she designed a communications strategy to achieve those outcomes. This included elements such as: carefully crafting tone and voice, identifying key messages, role playing questions and responses, “casting” the room to determine who in addition to Dani and Steve would join the conversation, and outlining a timeline for follow ups. 

To make a long story short – the school gave Grayson everything Dani asked for – and she asked for a lot. In addition to the standard accommodations of having headphones, extra time on tests, and things of that nature, Dani asked that she and Steve be given all assignments prior to the students receiving them so that they could help Grayson get her head around them, and additional considerations. It was a big list of accommodations, and Dani secured every single one of them – without the intervention of a lawyer or advocate. At the time, she thought nothing of this success.

For the next several years, Dani continued her career in PR while advocating for Grayson (and at times for her neurotypical child, Mitch, as well). As she expanded her social circle to include more and more parents of neurodivergent children she realized two things: first, that the community was massive. And second, that most in the community were not enjoying the same success in advocacy as she was. 

It was clear that the community was facing a real need – and equally clear that Dani had the super power to fill that need. She and Steve made the decision that Dani would step away from corporate communications to work with families of neurodivergent children full time – and Diverse Minds Advocacy was born!