Research tells us that communication can work perfectly well across diverse ways of making meaning; and through collaborative principles like mutual adaptation, transparency, negotiability, and repair.

When we pathologize gifted, autistic, and 2E+ communication, we're not identifying a deficiency—we're mistaking difference for deficit and making it harder for everyone to communicate successfully. We're treating one particular communication style as the ideal standard, then building all our systems, expectations, and "interventions" around that false image of correctness.

The result?

Neurodivergent people are told, implicitly and constantly, that their ways of connecting, processing, and expressing are wrong. And neurotypical people are robbed of the opportunity to, as leaders and providers, help actively promote clarity, collaboration, and better outcomes through a more sophisticated communication skillset.

But what if we started from a radically different foundation? What if we recognized Gifted, autistic, and 2E+ communication as an equally valid different language, not lack of skill? What if we designed communication systems that expand access, enable genuine participation, and create a strong sense of belonging?

That's the world my work builds toward: one where communication diversity isn't something to overcome, but something for which we can design, and through which we can flourish.