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Neurotypes
Autism
Autism seems to be a specific response to being an outlier.
Autism is poorly understood, even today. Some Autistic people are highly sensitive to certain senses, and some barely register sensory input. Some Autistic people struggle to use language to express themselves, and others have mastered communication as a special interest and powerful tool. Some Autistic people can hold down jobs and participate in society, and others are unable to reconcile their needs with the social environment.
Every Autistic trait you can identify will come with a whole slew of Autistic people telling you “Actually, I have the opposite of that trait.” And that’s normal.
That’s because, I suspect, autism is a complex neurological reaction to having various neurological traits in either significantly higher or lower proportion than neurotypical people. There is no one “Autistic” neurotype—autism seems to be what happens when your neurotype is sufficiently different that it gives rise to difficulty communicating due to a missing shared context. That’s why it’s perhaps better understood as an umbrella term, and why people squabble so much over who is or is not “really” Autistic.
I’m a verbal, married software engineer who makes a good salary and has bent the English language more or less to his will. Of COURSE I’m nothing like your 6 year old autistic nephew. But when I was 6, we probably had a lot in common.
Autism Resources
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Notes
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An essay I wrote that talks about the ways that neurodivergent life can be actively traumatizing for neurodivergent people. This essay specifically comes from an Autistic/ADHD experience.
Essay
An essay I wrote that discusses pattern matching and the way Autistic brains seem to process/consume information.
Essay
Tera runs a website that hosts content for and by Autistic people. This is a great place for authentic #ownvoices Autistic content, and Tera makes sure to foster a diverse set of voices from within the autistic community.
Blog
I created this site as a place to house some of my writing about neurodiversity, and it grew into one of the more wholesome online communities I belong to. Currently at about 14k active users, this is a great place to ask questions and clarify your thinking.
Website
This was my attempt to “translate” the DSM-IV’s definition of autism into relatable human terms. If you read the diagnosis criteria and thought “that doesn’t sound like me,” then you’re not alone. Anybody would have a hard time relating to something written as a purely behavioralist description of a purely subjective experience.
Website Post
This is a fun little exercise: scroll through this Twitter thread of Autistic moods and see how many you relate to.
Social Media Post
This addresses questions about why some people think ADHD and autism are part of the same spectrum and why some people disagree.
Social Media Post
A weekly newsletter focused on the Autistic community. Read online or subscribe to have it sent by email each week. Motto: “More than enough news by, for, and about Autistic people.”
Website
New York City locally-focused resource lists (including peer-led groups, professional-led groups, and professional services) and essays about the Autistic adult community (worldwide, Anglosphere at least) and its needed future development.
Website
A center that does research, education, advocacy and outreach, and clinical work.
Website
Information on someone who is interested in the intersection of law and neurodiversity.
Website
Late-diagnosed Autistic artists talk about their Autistic life experiences. The conversations are healing and affirming for many listeners.
Website
An (albeit flawed) introduction to neurodiversity in a professional context. PDF download.
Essay
A blog written by Rebecca Rose, a late-diagnosed neurodivergent woman who shares firsthand experiences and resources for living with her brain and brains like hers.
Blog
Personal blog written by Rachel, an Autistic person from Singapore. For Autistic punks, rebels and misfits forging their own path in a neurotypical world.
Blog
A guided shadow work journal with over 100 writing prompts specifically tailored for Neurodivergents, by a Neurodivergent author. Shadow work is the process of getting to know the hidden parts of yourself—thoughts, emotions, behaviours and parts of your personality that you’ve repressed because you were taught that they were undesirable or because of trauma. By bringing these hidden aspects to light, you get to understand yourself better and work towards self-acceptance.
Book
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Autistic Social Media Accounts
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Pete’s a former teacher and writes with informed empathy about the intersection of autism and school.
Twitter
Ann is an actually Autistic researcher and frequently posts excellent deconstructions of the latest crap in the field of autism research.
Twitter
Writer with multiple neurodivergent dx, also trans/nonbinary, queer, and multiply disabled in other ways. Talking about the intersections of these realities and how they all connect and crash.
Twitter
Positive behavior intervention for neurodivergency, trauma and disability. Content for individuals and caregivers of individuals.
Twitter
His pinned "You might be Autistic, if…" thread is what led to my self-diagnosis (not gonna debate that with anyone, ever), and eventual clinical Autism diagnosis.
Twitter
"Neurotypicality Research Institute" (formerly "Save The Neurotypicals!") is a satirical account, whose Autistic author uses to flip ableist language about us and turn it on the Neurotypicals. It's witty to hilarious.
Twitter
Dr. Chloe is an Autistic researcher of neurodivergence in the UK. Her feed is often hard science. I can't do it justice—check her out, see if it's your thing!
Twitter
Looking for an intersectional perspective? Riah has you covered! ADHD + Autism + Feminism + Disability Advocacy + Anti-Racism.
Twitter
Another intersectional perspective. She is where I first learned about how much Autism and ADHD increases our chances of experiencing violence from police. Our facial expressions are apparently what they're taught as suspicious?
Twitter
Another Autistic researcher of ND things! Lots of science about stress and autism.
Twitter
Steve is an Autistic author, advocate, and often apologetic Floridian. Great feed for advocacy content.
Twitter
You may have seen Marina Amaral's books. She is kinda famous for two books she co-wrote with historian Dan Jones, where she painstakingly colorized black and white photos, and he wrote the back story of the photos. Lots of photos, but also some Autistic and ND activism.
Twitter
“I think I’m pretty great and have interesting thoughts and infodumps. More seriously, I am a late diagnosed AuDHDer [autistic and ADHD] who is trained as an ADHD coach. I Tweet a lot about my experiences and realizations. It’s not an option in the neurotypes, but I’m also dyspraxic. Sometimes I talk about being a dyspraxic aerialist and how I do movement things I like while being clinically uncoordinated.”
Twitter
“I work on government code, engineering, and talk a lot about my ADHD and how i’ve succeeded in spite of it - and because of it.”
Twitter
This person speaks about autism, neurodiversity, disability studies, Marxism, and anticapitalism. Written in Portuguese.
Twitter
He runs YouTube channel, where he makes engaging videos about his life as an Autistic person, professional and father. His videos have humor and heart, and make people feel less alone.
Twitter
Big-picture thinking about autism and society. Also includes really helpful nutritional tips.
Twitter
They write about neurodiversity from a scientific standpoint as well as from personal experience.
Twitter
Neurodivergent woman in tech designing access rider building tools to promote access and inclusion for neurokin in screen and media sector.
Twitter
They are a great writer writing about life at the intersections of different neurodivergences. They are very funny sometimes, but also seem to be very kind and generous.
Twitter
Editor of The Autistic Infodump . Late-dx Autistic, ADHD, queer, compunerd. Tweets are eclectic but plenty of ND content. Sorry about the puns.
Twitter
Autistic late-diagnosed person with a neuroscience background who is a writer, speaker, and consultant and has multiple disabilities.
Twitter
“I advocate as part of the autistic community and occasionally write on autistic topics for my own and other sites.”
Twitter
Founder of various Autistic peer-led groups in New York City (now meeting via text-based chat, hopefully eventually in-person), including .
Twitter
I’m the mostly speaking Autistic mother of a partially speaking Autistic teen. I’m also one of the editors of (Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism), and a non-attorney advocate for disabled children’s education.
Twitter
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