Hi Reader,

This week’s newsletter is a bit different from my usual Sunday musings — I’m thrilled to share a big project we’ve been working on at Neurodivergent Insights for the past six months. A new, more inclusive and accessible version of our website is now live!

And I wanted to take some time today to tell you the story behind it.

[Not into the backstory? Here’s the TL;DR: Our website is now much more accessible! It’s available in over 100 languages, has features to support dyslexia and ADHD accessibility, offers voice-to-text functionality, and much more. And here is a video tutorial on how to access it].

The Origin Story of the NDI Website

In the spring of 2021, while exploring autism with my daughter, I had a lightbulb moment — I wasn’t just learning about her; I was learning about myself. I realized I was Autistic too. At the time, I was about to graduate with a Doctorate in psychology, yet somehow, so much essential information about autism — especially in girls and women — had been missing from my training.

I dove in headfirst, I read research articles about the female autistic phenotype, masking, camouflaging, and the staggering rates of undiagnosed and misdiagnosed adults. It lit a fire in me. I had just spent years in rigorous training, yet I had never received information that would have helped me to see my daughter or myself as Autistic. Life-changing (maybe even life-saving) knowledge — about myself, about my own child was completely missing from my training experience.

Four months later, I turned my personal Instagram account into Neurodivergent Insights and started posting educational content for the 300 friends I had on there. My goal? If I could reach 500, maybe 1,000 people with more accurate information about autism, that would be pretty cool.

Building the Ecosystem

When I first started, I made simple Venn diagrams. I had a suspicion many undiagnosed Autistic people were perhaps being diagnosed with other conditions, so I wanted to visually map it out. But every time I made one, I’d go down a rabbit hole — reading 20+ research articles just to make sure I got it right. Pretty soon, I realized I needed somewhere to “show my work” beyond Instagram captions. And just like that, my website was born.

The early versions? Let’s just say I didn’t exactly know what I was doing. The website had a lot of clashing colors and articles that read more like dry academic literature reviews than accessible resources… it was a work in progress.

Over time, my focus started shifting from social media to growing the website into something more central — something like an educational hub. Then I started hearing from people who wanted to translate my work into their own languages because resources on adult and non-stereotypical autism were (and still are) incredibly hard to find. The first time I received a request like this I was a bit shocked. It was humbling to realize just how much this information was needed — and how important it was to make it accessible to as many people as possible.

A More Accessible Platform

Last year, while writing a series on disability, I noticed some major limitations: the platform hosting my website wasn’t cutting it in terms of accessibility. The site wasn’t as user-friendly for people with disabilities or neurodivergent brains as I wanted it to be. That realization led to a six-month effort to rebuild the site on a platform that could better support accessibility.

I’m so excited to share that Neurodivergent Insights is now much more accessible. Some of the new features include:

The ability to translate it nearly all the major languages
Dyslexia- and ADHD-friendly options for reading.
Voice-to-text functionality.
And much more!

I made a quick video tutorial to show you how to
turn on some of these features: ⬇️

https://www.tella.tv/video/accessibility-features-tutorial-2pan

And you can check out the updated website below ⬇️

Neurodivergent Insights

This journey has been more rewarding than I ever could have imagined when I set out with the simple goal of spreading information about adult autism. Thank you to everyone who has supported this work — your support has made this investment in accessibility possible. If you’re in a country where resources are limited, please help spread the word! People can now access hundreds of articles on autism, alexithymia, ADHD, rejection sensitivity and so much more in their own language.

I also want to ask for your patience if you’ve recently made (or plan to make) a purchase. As part of this expansion, our shop went through a major migration. If you notice anything not working as it should — like broken links or trouble accessing your purchase — please don’t hesitate to reach out.

We’re learning this new system too, so we truly appreciate your patience as we work through any hiccups. Learning new tech can be rough on our brains, but we’re on it and will get back to you as quickly as possible. If you run into a customer support issue, email us at support@neurodivergentinsights.com. Our response time might be a little slower this week, but we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. And if you notice a broken link or other issue you can simply submit the issue here and we’ll get on it!

Thank you for being here — I appreciate you!

Warmly,

★彡 Neurodivergent Insights Weekly Roundup ★彡

🎙️ New on the Podcast

Over the next 10 weeks Patrick and I are taking a breather and re-releasing some of our favorite episodes from 2024. This episode is about ADHD and Romanticism (the tendency to romanticize a better future where our future selves don't struggle with x, y and z.)

Listen Here ➜

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