Here’s what people are saying about A Failure of Imagination — and where you can find us in the press.
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Reviews
A Failure of Imagination provides the justification and the roadmap for changing the game of how healthcare is provided to neurodivergent people, and ultimately, for all people. As a neurodivergent physician grounded in social justice values and lived experience, Dr. Mel Houser has directly experienced the harm that can be caused by systems that are insensitive to the needs of patients, and that separates healthcare from broader quality of life issues. This book gives actionable direction for the changes that must be made. A Failure of Imagination should be read by all — neurodivergent people, families, healthcare professionals and policy makers, and anyone who has ever felt there must be another way.
~Barry M. Prizant, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Author, Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism
A Failure of Imagination is a brave, clear-eyed, and deeply humane book that names what so many feel but few dare to say: our healthcare system was never built for everyone. Dr. Houser writes with the rare authority of someone who has lived the harm and built the alternative, turning hard-won insight into a model of care rooted in belonging, access, and dignity. Rigorous yet warm, unflinching yet hopeful, it refuses to accept “how things are” as how things must be. This is essential reading for anyone who believes a more imaginative, inclusive way of caring for one another is possible—and worth building.
~Lawrence Fung, M.D., Ph.D., Ed.D. (Hon.), DFAACAP, DFAPA, Director, Stanford Center for Neurodiversity and Human Potential; Associate Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine
The evidence that healthcare fails autistic and neurodivergent people has been clear for years. What’s been harder to imagine is what we’d build instead. A Failure of Imagination answers that question – not in theory but in practice, with the voices of the community at its centre. Melissa Houser writes as both clinician and autistic person, with the hard-won clarity of someone who has experienced the failure of the system and refused to wait for it to catch up.
~Dr. Mary Doherty, Clinical Associate Professor, University of Dublin, Ireland; Founder, Autistic Doctors International
How instructive these words are for all of us who desire to do right by our patients, communities and even this health care system.How instructive these words are for all of us who desire to do right by our patients, communities and even this health care system. I found it highly motivating and centering on how to solve real problems that impact the health of people, friends and colleagues. This is what distributed agency looks like at scale. For anyone working in healthcare, education, organizational design, or community building, All Brains Belong isn’t just an inspiring story. It’s a working model.
~Jay Fetter, MSHA, Family Medicine Residency Redesign and Practice Transformation Leader
This book fills a gaping hole that most people aren’t even aware exists. It masterfully identifies the problems present in modern day medical practices that confront many autistic people and identifies ways to move forward. This book, filled with the lived experience and stories of patients, clinicians, community members, provides us with the very thing it is suggesting we can create — community care: a space where people are truly heard, experience is validated, there is a commitment to sharing knowledge and resources, and the collective consciousness drives meaningful change.
~Amy Laurent, Ph.D., OTR/L and Jacquelyn Feder, Psy.D., Co-Founders, Autism Level UP!
