I feel like pandemic + Relatable Content have conspired to make a LOT of us recently come into a neurodivergent understanding of ourselves.
-and-
Part of learning a new identity should always be about who else shares it, and how to advocate for them—especially in times of influx.
This is a particularly cogent writeup (more often the case for Tumblr than anyone wants to admit) about the history of the terms neuroatypical and neurodivergent, and how they intersect. Take the guidance with awareness that discourse is ever-evolving.
phineasfrogg.tumblr.com/post/954716156…
Specifically in relation to neurodivergence, the key takeaway is that nobody's trying to keep ADHD or autistic people from using it—we should just also be aware that it includes folks with schizophrenia, OCD, dyslexia, some forms of depression and anxiety, and more.
I personally interpret "neurodivergent" as referring to the ways that people find themselves at odds, cognitively, with expectations of broader society, in ways that are impossible or extraordinarily burdensome to change (or where "change" most just looks like "hide" or "adapt").
When we use terms for ourselves that describe a lived experience which involves oppression, we formally become part of a justice movement—in this case, for disability and mental health. When it's even remotely an umbrella term (most are), we have additional obligations as allies.
And, as shitty as it sounds, when our forms of oppression have resulted in a lifetime of masking skills, we have fluency—even if tenuous and exhausting—in adapting to society that may be less accessible to others.
Terms to google:
- neurodivergent
- neuroatypical
- allistic [people who are not autistic]
- intersectionality [always a good thing to learn more about as a nuanced framework for relative privilege, very easy to misuse in a way that disrespects its racial justice origins]

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More from @mspowahs

16 Sep
technology will not rest until the primary survival skill required for life on earth is how well we can anticipate and respond to the mental models of extremely complex algorithms
I used to think of this purely in the context of economic survival, but realistically “how to not look like a road to a car” and “how to not look like a perp to a bigdog” will eventually be right up there with “stop, drop, and roll” and avoiding anvil-shaped shadows
depending on your perspective, you could say that getting along with extremely complex algorithms (in this case, humans) is already a survival skill. it is! what's scary is the alien, multicellular nature of corporations reaching into the single-cell space of embodied actors.
Read 4 tweets
16 Aug
Just catching up on Chirp discourse. Quick thoughts:
🧵
I think it's a major misstep to let content fonts shoulder the weight of a product's brand. That's what wordmarks are for. If everyone did that, the most usable typography would only be found in the most unambitious products.
Ironically, the Chirp implementation actually DOES communicate a lot about Twitter's brand: features nobody asked for rolled out with great fanfare, somehow phoned-in anyway, at the expense of truly popular requests, with remarkably little critical diligence around accessibility.
Read 12 tweets
14 Aug
might have no choice but to pursue a graduate degree in understanding the decisions which resulted in this plastic Home Goods statue A molded plastic statue of a meditating Buddha at a home gooA closeup of the statue’s German newsprint clothing, with The back of the statue, which has changed to feature ItalianA closeup of the Italian sheet music.
A Berlin newspaper from July 15, 1933—reporting on the Four-Power Pact, perhaps? Signed in Rome, which might explain the Italian sheet music? But also, whose ineffectuality mostly served to increase tension in the buildup to WWII??
Also I only just noticed this tidbit
Read 4 tweets
10 Aug
Random thoughts from S1 of My Hero Academia in no particular order
Guess which one’s Aizawa The “butch/femme alignment chart” commonly known on the
All-Might and Midoriya after a fight
Read 22 tweets
6 Aug
DESIGN TIP: stop thinking about Jony Ive and start imagining what The Fonz would nod approvingly at
no personas. all personas are Fonz now
this is my secret plot to bring back skeumorphism
Read 4 tweets
26 Jul
[trying to make light conversation] so are you “go to bed early so today ends sooner” depressed or “stay up late to keep tomorrow from happening” depressed
cool cool, right on. so when you self-isolate is it more to protect you from people, or people from you
hey me too. this is going great
Read 4 tweets

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