Activism, Service, Advocacy

I’ve always felt the best leaders come from the populations they represent. As a neurodiverse person, I am committed to destigmatizing neurocognitive differences. I am a speaker, presenter, organizer, and author focused on synaesthesia, Tourette, sensory processing differences, Autism, attention deficit disorders, dyslexia, and other neurocognitive outliers.

I sit on the executive board of IASAS, the International Association of Synaesthetes, Artists, and Scientists where I’ve helped to organize academic conferences at the University of California Los Angeles and Moscow State University of Psychology and Education in Russia. Additionally, I’ve presented at synaesthesia symposia in Dublin, Ireland, Alcalá al Real, Spain, and Moscow, Russia.

Social media has allowed neurodiverse individuals across the globe to connect with each other and find community. I manage the Mirror-Touch Synesthesia Facebook page and regularly field questions from people curious about their own mirror-sensory phenomena. That page can be found here.

The photo above is from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and my visit to one of its peace murals.

Carolyn CC Hart

I'm a neurodiversity advocate, an artist, an author, and a licensed massage therapist. My senses are intertwined via synaesthesia, a neurocognitive difference, which informs my writing, my visual art, my costume design, and my long career in manual therapy. I am continuing to learn how my divergent brain creates both opportunities and obstacles, and I support the argument that neurodiverse traits are not necessarily pathologies, but represent part of the spectrum of human somatosensory, intellectual, and cognitive experience. I support Judy Singer's theories of neurodiversity which include the concept that just as conserving biodiversity is necessary for a sustainable, flourishing planet, so respecting neurodiversity is necessary for a sustainable, flourishing human society. I am a founding member of the International Association of Synaesthetes, Artists, and Scientists, where I serve as the IASAS secretary. I've practiced therapeutic massage for more than 30 years, and feel that my sensory sensitivities have helped me thrive in my hands-on career.

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