The Productive Pessimist

Recently, an article was circulated through the UK media about "neurological issues affecting Gen Z", which were 'blamed' on "excessive reliance on noise-cancelling headphones". These 'neurological issues' are actually known as Auditory Processing Disorder, or APD. What Is APD? Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a difficulty in the brain being able to distinguish background noise from speech, but with hearing tests returning "normal" results. This is a tricky issue, because some people in the early stages of hearing loss will struggle in exactly this way, however their hearing test may come back as in a 'normal range'. As with all medicine, sometimes doctors fail to pick something up that could be managed or may be part of a wider issue. However, where this is relevant to neurodiversity is that these issues combined with a normal result hearing test, are a hallmark for Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). APD can occur for a va...

  The recent riots and racially-motivated intimidation across the North of the UK, and in Northern Ireland, has shown one thing very clearly; that inclusion training and 'awareness' in the UK is failing. For those who have to live in a marginalised experience, especially where their marginalisation is very visible, this isn't news. It isn't a surprise. Even for white British people who face marginalisation because of disability, economic status, sexuality, or gender identity, the fact that "inclusion and diversity awareness and training" typically only makes discriminative attitudes worse . As an organisation working in inclusive practice, we at The Productive Pessimist are obviously very concerned both about genuine  inclusion, and the welcome and safety of all people who are able to behave with courtesy and open-mindedness to others, and about why traditional inclusion training isn't working. The primary issue we've observed is that traditional inclu...