Warning: This site is a parody and is not meant to be taken literally.
This site is not meant to be taken seriously. “The Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical” is not a real institute or organization.
SPOILER: Help understanding the humor
Understanding the humor and message of ISNT
If you’re confused about this site, either because you’re new to autism or neurodivergency topics or because you’re an neurodivergent person who is reading this website literally:
ISNT was created to show the arrogance of much medical research on autism and neurodivergency, and how they are subsequently portrayed to the general public.
This website describes being neurotypical (“normal”) as a disorder. This is not because the authors of this site think NT is a disorder. This is to illustrate the way that, by selecting and twisting the facts, researchers and organizations claiming to speak for us can portray autistic people, who have a difference with positive* as well as negative attributes, as having defective brains. The way this site describes NT as a disorder is intended to humorusly illustrate this issue.
* If you are only familiar with the most rarest and most severe forms of autism, you might wonder how autism could have advantages. It does! For example, autistic people have an extraordinary ability to think in unique ways and focus on a specific subject of interest (Fun Fact: Albert Einstein was almost certainly autistic). The downside is that our ability to pick up on social norms and cues, as well as capacities for communication and sensory processing, are impaired to varying degrees.
I am happy to be the way I am, despite this. But even if I were among the most severely disabled by autism, I would still be a human being, not a defect, disorder, or mistake.
THIS SITE AND IT’S CONTENTS ARE NOT, AND SHOULD NOT BE INTERPRETED AS PROFESSIONAL ADVICE IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM.