Pay neurodivergent and disabled creators and amplify them to our clients and throughout society.
We exist for the direct support and mutual aid of neurodivergent and disabled people.
Staying alive is a lot of work for a disabled person in an ableist society…
Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the 21st Century
Please stay alive Please stay alive Please stay alive Please survive Please survive -- Old Friend (Stay Alive)
Keep on Livin’
We serve our loved people so we can keep on living through the onslaught.
I would like to honour all the autistic people who survive the care system somehow.
All those who survive extreme ‘therapy’.
All those who are brought to their knees, reading hellish descriptions of their loved people.
And all who did not survive this onslaught.
Ann Memmott PGC🌈 on Twitter
Look up to the sky, sky, sky Take back your own tonight You'll find more than you see It's time now, now, get ready
This is your time, this is your life and This is your time, this is your life and This is your time, this is your life and This is your time, this is your life and You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!) Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!) You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!) Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!) You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!) Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!) You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!) Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!) -- Keep On Livin'
Wear it out (The way a three-year-old would do) Melt it down (You're gonna have to eventually anyway) The fire trucks are comin' up around the bend You live, you learn You love, you learn You cry, you learn You lose, you learn You bleed, you learn You scream, you learn You grieve, you learn You choke, you learn You laugh, you learn You choose, you learn You pray, you learn You ask, you learn You live, you learn -- You Learn
Dive in, don't you roll over Don’t you promise your lungs to the fights Starving, hardly knew Mozart Don't you know he was never quite right He used to see craters, in her head He used to be darling and cheap But no one believed him When he said he lost his strength I am moved by fancies that are curled Around these images and cling The notion of some infinitely gentle Infinitely suffering thing Zombie eyes are promising Crooked teeth are sweet Don't leave me gravity Don’t leave me gravity He used to see craters, in her head He used to be darling and cheap But no one believed him When he said he lost his strength I always believed him When he said he couldn't find his feet I always believed him When he said it didn't feel complete I always believed I always believed Breathe Breathe I always believed him 'til he made it back to our beat -- Don’t Leave Me Gravity
Let Us Be Our Real Selves
True colors are beautiful Like a rainbow
There is room for all of us to play our part. And whatever we do, however we do it, we can do it with ‘loud hands’ and ‘loud voices,’ and loud whatever else we need, in whatever way that works for us individually or collectively. Let us be our real autistic selves, loud and proud, and show the world what we truly are.
Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking (p. 125). Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Creed
I know
I know that pluralism is our reality. I know that Neurodiversity is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation, and that Neurodiversity friendly forms of collaboration hold the potential to transform pathologically competitive and toxic teams and cultures. I know Autistic forms of communication within a neurodiverse team and within a psychologically safe environment impart a collaborative advantage to the entire team. I know neurodiversity, the social model of disability, and intersectionality are urgently needed reframing necessary to equity and inclusion.
I center
I center the marginalized and the different. I center edge cases, because edge cases are stress cases and design is tested at the edges. I center neurodivergent and disabled experience in service to all bodyminds.
I will
I will never stop learning. I will communicate as much as possible because communication is oxygen to an organization. I will never pass up an opportunity to help out another Stimpunk. I will maintain learner safety and remember what it is like to be a new contributor. I will build with, not for. I will default to open. I will move carefully and fix things. I will make things that help people, and I will not make things that harm people. I will bake ethics into everything I do.
Raise your hand if you’re not from a mold (yeah me) Varied strings are worth more than gold Mah-ah-ah-ah-ahl function away Mah-ah-ah-ah-ahl function away Malfunction! Malfunction! Malfunction! ... Their Malfunction isn’t us, it’s all the clamor and the fuss ... I’m about to pick you up get you back up on your feet you don’t need to worry love Even if we’re incomplete Come on baby open up Pull out the wires and trim the fluff Be yourself sounds so cliche But hey let's do it anyway -- Malfunction
Philosophy
We steer by the acquired phrases below. They are compasses and stars that align us on our mission.
Stop, Hammer Time
It’s not Science vs Philosophy … It’s Science + Philosophy. When you measure include the measurer.
MC Hammer
I would insist on the embodied nature of all vision and so reclaim the sensory system that has been used to signify a leap out of the marked body and into a conquering gaze from nowhere. This is the gaze that mythically inscribes all the marked bodies, that makes the un-marked category claim the power to see and not be seen, to represent while escaping representation.
Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective
The interpretation of objectivity as neutral does not allow for participation or stances. This uninvolved, uninvested approach implies “a conquering gaze from nowhere” (Haraway 1988). In many ways, claims of objectivity allow one to “represent while escaping representation” (Haraway 1988) and mimics the construction of Whiteness2 in the racialization of marginalized peoples (Battey and Leyva 2016; Guess 2006). Indeed, there is extensive evidence suggesting that STEM cultural norms are traditionally White, masculine, heteronormative and able-bodied (Atchison and Libarkin 2016; Chambers 2017; Eisenhart and Finkel 1998; Johnson 2001; Nespor 1994; Seymour and Hewitt 1997; Traweek 1988). Thus, while purporting to be a neutral application of a generic protocol, science-and STEM more broadly-has a distinct set of cultures that governs legitimate membership and acceptable behaviors. The concept of a meritocracy is often used to justify who succeeds in STEM cultures. However, far from “leveling the playing field”, meritocracies exist in cultural systems that prioritize people who have, or to a lesser extent closely emulate, these traits. Success in science, then, tends to privilege cultural traits associated with the above identities and often marginalizes scientists who can not or will not perform these identities. This introduces structural inequities in the pursuit of science that align with social manifestations of racism, colonialism, sexism, homophobia and ableism (Cech and Pham 2017; Wilder 2014).
Defining the Flow—Using an Intersectional Scientific Methodology to Construct a VanguardSTEM Hyperspace
=
There is no path to equity that does not involve a direct confrontation with inequity.
Inequities are primarily power and privilege problems.
Equity requires the redistribution of material, cultural, and social access and opportunity.
You cannot counter structural inequality with good will. You have to structure equality.
We are all accountable to the urgent work of building a more just, more equitable world.
🧷
Giving inclusion safety is a moral imperative.
All human beings have the same innate need: We long to belong.
🤝
😢
People suffer, and when they do, it’s for a reason.
Shame is not a weapon. Shame is toxic. It is the difference between “sorry I did” and “sorry I am.”
🔌
🏩
What's the problem with my genius? Too attached to ever leave it Silent for the new achievement but What I long to witness is the equal shift Of lifted gadgetry to intuition by Genius giving up its selfish tact And bringing praise of spirit back (Hey) Pay respect upon the debt incurred By non-belief when soul was speaking Called simplistic by a name familiar to Those regulars who think intelligence a competition Missing opportunity to be a real show embarrassment The care is not The care is NOT spewing tools to ax the problem Rather asking have or how they aptly solve themselves ... What if love said: Hear me out a bit before the future comes around ... This isn't anger, no, it's passion so let's live the way we should As if we existed "As If We Existed" by Solillaquists of Sound
Code of Conduct
All Stimpunks agree to abide by the contributor covenant.
We as members, contributors, and leaders pledge to make participation in our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.
Contributor Covenant
A tldr one-liner of the contributor covenant that often appears in the codes of conduct of online communities is, “Don’t be TRAASH.”
Don’t be TRAASH (transphobic, racist, ableist, abusive, sexist, homophobic).
At Stimpunks, we add an extra A to TRAAASH, for antisemitic. Like Autistic people, Jewish people are a canary population alerting us that “Never is now”.
Don’t be TRAAASH (transphobic, racist, ableist, abusive, antisemitic, sexist, homophobic).
Another good one-liner: “No proselytizing.” Consult this article and infographic from Chrissy Stroop on anti-proselytizing principles.
Don’t be TRAAASH.
No proselytizing.
Those 5 words distill the minimum requirements to maintaining inclusive spaces.
“Everything is politics”, but the code of conduct is not about an advance of progressive/left-wing politics. It’s about establishing a minimal level of civil and professional collaboration. Civil, non-discriminatory, and professional behavior should be a baseline and shared value held by people of all ideologies, regardless of political affiliation (with the obvious exception of hate groups).
Contributor Covenant: Frequently Asked Questions about Contributor Covenant
When social spaces are designed without concern for all groups of users, the space will become an echo chamber of ideas and perspectives from a narrower range of people.
ADL Social Pattern Library | Inclusive Social Spaces – ADL Social Pattern Library
I know you think I'm not something you're afraid of 'Cause you think that you've seen what I'm made of Well I am even more than the two of them! Everything they care about is what I am! I am their fury, I am their patience I am a conversation! I am made o-o-o-o-of Lo-o-o-o-ove, o-o-o-o-ove And it's stronger than you Lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove And it's stronger than you Lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove And it's stronger than you Lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove -- Stronger Than You A rainbow doesn't choose to be a rainbow It just shines in the sky To all of you in darkness We're here turning on the light Now I stand with you for the world to see My love, my dreams, and me My love, my dreams, and me -- Rainbow Connections
Fostering healthy pluralism, which democracy demands, means confronting intolerance.
Chrissy Stroop
