Neurodivergence and Tech - My Metamorphosis: DrupalCon Portland 2022
Channel: Drupal Association
Date: 2022-05-05

Speaker: Matthew Saunders 

In Amsterdam 2019, I shared my life's journey as a Neurodivergent Tech Professional along with nascent insights I had that were forming at the time. As I've continued my exploration and have embraced this identity, I have had an increasing understanding of the impact these differences have had on how I view the world, how I work, and how I approach relationships.

This session is a follow up, although it is not necessary to have attended the earlier talk, discussing pivots in my life and how they might be applicable to your life.

I'll first talk about how a little kid who wasn't supposed to learn to read or write ended up on a path to graduate school and ultimately in a leadership position at a Fortune 50 Company, architecting world reaching products. I'll move on to help bring understanding to others who may be neurodivergent, may not know they are neurodivergent, and those who aren't but want to have better tools in this space. How do we tick? What approaches work best for some of us and how can we be best approached?

I’ll openly share my own pitfalls -- professional, medical, and academic. Any of them could have become a weak link in the chain that brought me to my current role.

This will be a celebration of our differences and how they make us stronger.