Mostly life has dealt me an excellent hand, but for what it is worth, I am also affected by two types of sensory malfunction and one kind of neurodiversity. I think the world would be a better place if we all shared more of our challenges with each other, and so fwiw.

I am partially sighted

In 2020 I discovered that I have a rare and inoperable type of benign brain tumor that presses on my optic nerves, and so I can only use about 40% of my visual field. So when I say your fonts are too small, I really do mean it. So far it has been kept in check via the magic of science. But many approaches to adapting to sight loss rely on using your hearing to compensate, which is inconvenient, because…

I am also partially deaf

I inherited a gradual hearing loss that became noticeable in my mid-30s. I use hearing aids, although quite a lot of the time I use Apple AirPods Pro, which are much easier to track down when misplaced, which is good because…

I also have ADHD

This is my favorite minority affliction, because unlike the other two, ADHD has some fairly substantial upsides as a scientist. But let’s just say that there are times when I genuinely do not know what month we are in, and that having to do tax admin in four different jurisdictions in not something that comes naturally to me…