6 am on Thanksgiving morning here in Denver I joined Jude Morrow in Northern Ireland who is host of the podcast Neurodiversity Gold and award winning designer and innovative thinker on neurodiversity Dr Lutza Ireland who joined from Australia. The 6 am time was to make it work with the 3 of us spread around the globe. It was 11 pm for Dr Lutza and Jude got off easy with it being the beginning of the afternoon.

We had a great chat on multiple topics as is always to be expected when speaking with Dr Lutza or Jude. But we really dug in to why the term Neurodivergent needs to be replaced with neurodistinct. We have change terminology in virtually all areas of our life over the last couple of decades, but a term that has no solid foundation and from many aspects we discuss carries negative baggage has remains the banner in the autistic world. Seems strange that we are seeking acceptance with a term who's root is division.

Check out the episode and 2 of my wonderful...

Dart Lindsley ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/dart-lindsley ) has spent decades working in HR for major companies in the tech industry. But, Dart is far from the norm you expect in that line of work. He has unique and innovative ways of looking at work. The first time I met him he asked me "What did you hire your job to do for you?". It is a questions he asks frequently and it really makes you think about work in a very different light.

Dart is always a joy to talk with and recording a conversation for his podcast was no different. He again asked me "What did you hire your job to do for you?" and the question again made me think about my current role in a different way. As always our conversation wandered through many topics as we circled around neuroversity and how the neurodistict do and should fit in. Once again we ran out of time before either of us ran out of interest and things to discuss.

It was truly an honor to be a guest on Work For Humans. It was fun discussing...

 I had a great time talking with autistic podcaster Reid Miles as we recorded the show. This is how Reid describes the podcast: "Chats with people who deal with ASD and ADHD. I talk to those in the profession like therapist or even chats with mothers who have kids on the spectrum. Just honest chats with questions thrown in. Where two people can sit and share thoughts on the spectrum Come join us we I talk with people from all over the ASD and ADHD field."

The session was a relaxed conversation of my experiences and ideas on autism and neurodiversity. We also dug into why I use Neurodistinct to replace Neurodivergent. I have posted about this on my blog, but there is even more in our discussion.

You can find the episode at: https://insidetheaspergersstudio.podbean.com/e/nero-divergent-or-nero-distinct/

If you prefer a video version peeking in at us as we concentrate on doing audio, check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkjEWNZKJbk

Reid also has a blog at: ...

In September 2022 I did a 1-1/2 hour event for Help\Systems. There was great attendance and engagement with over 1000 employees from 18 countries joining the virtual event. Their leader of DEI Andrea Rooney has done an amazing job making diversity a strong part of their culture. She had me present to introduce them to neurodiversity. Even with an hour for Q&A there were still many questions in chat I couldn't get to.

Engagement was tremendous with 1000 out of 2700 people joining the virtual event from 18 countries. Andrea was very happy with the results of the presentation.

Here is a quote from Andrea: "Thank you again for a fabulous presentation. The response from our organization has been outstanding. It exceeded my goal of introducing the concepts and having people walk away with a new perspective and understanding about diversity and the neurodistinct."

This video isn't the live presentation, but me answering a selection of those remaining...

Autism Society Welcomes Asila Calhoun, Stephen DeStefani, and Tim Goldstein to the National Board of Directors

Autism Society Welcomes Asila Calhoun, Stephen DeStefani, and Tim Goldstein to the National Board of Directors

 September 1, 2022, Rockville, MD — The Autism Society of America is thrilled to welcome Asila Calhoun, Stephen DeStefani, and Tim Goldstein as new members of the National Board of Directors. Their professional backgrounds, advocacy and passion will positively contribute to the strong group of individuals making up the National Board of Directors.

“The Autism Society of America has been focused on board recruitment to add to the diversity of experiences, backgrounds, abilities, and skill sets to best support the organization’s goals,” shares Christopher Banks, President and CEO of the Autism Society of America. ” Through added depth of knowledge and varied perspectives, the organization will be positioned for success to continue...

On August 30, 2022 I had the pleasure of participating in a panel discussion for the quarterly Partners with a Purpose DEI Alliance meeting along with my fellow autistic Googlers Erin Coughlan and Jim Hogan. Partners with a Purpose is a collaborative effort of the DEI groups at Accenture, Deloitte, DoiT International, Google Cloud, Infosys, Palo Alto Networks, SADA, Softchoice, and TD SYNNEX. Google was the host for the meeting and the topic was neurodiversity in the workplace.

This was a wonderful opportunity to help the DEI pros at these great companies understand more about neurodiversity. The interest in the topic is very strong and it is great to see the movement transitioning from recruiting to being a recognition of diversity that has been hidden until recently.

After the normal meeting kickoff statements the 3 of us panelists did quick self introductions. I had volunteered for the role of defining neurodiversity. I started off by noting the...

 I had another wonderful opportunity to be a podcast guest. The topic area of this podcast is quite different and I really love it. While both the hosts, Liron and Jim, are long term hard core Oracle database gurus the podcast is about all things in the tech world except the actual tech. They bring a view of being in tech that is not frequently discussed.

There was one question that was asked which gave me a very different spin on the all too common challenge of communicating in a socially appropriate manner. Liron is from Israel and moved from there to western Canada 4 years ago. He tells me that in Israel speaking directly and clearly stating the point is the norm in their culture. He found that in North America it is more common and the acceptable approach to not state many things directly but to phrase things so the direct meaning is between the lines. He also had told me a story of an American colleague who presented at a Dutch conference. He was given a...

There is a great program at BACEmploy in Florida which trains the autistic and PTSD veterans in Google technologies. Solid training in Google technologies and an opportunity to earn a Google certification. This is the second time I have done a presentation for them. The first was the prior student cohort. Check them out at: bacemploy.com/launchit/

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Introducing: Neurodiversity, Hidden Culture, and Learning the Language Training

Learning Tree and Tim Goldstein have collaborated to create a professionally designed and presented training on understanding neurodiversity and the neurodistinct. While we cover that the neurodistinct include many groups besides autism including ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and other named and unnamed groups in this course the focus is the technical type autistic. We focused on autism based on the positive results from the efforts of global autism at work companies such as SAP, EY, JPMorgan Chase, Accenture, Microsoft, Ford and many other.

This courses takes Tim's unique skill to explain his and others autistics experience through a combination of his lived experience with his ability to explain complex topics in relatable ways. This course is designed for anyone that needs to directly interact with the potentially autistic tech type. It is also well suited to use from a DEI...