Ethos
In setting up this site, I want to provide an online space where everyone is welcome and included, since I think it’s a common feeling in the neurodivergent community that so far, we simply haven’t felt included in society in general – and even moreso if you’re a member of a minority group outside of being neurodivergent.
The ethos of the site is simple – Off The Couch is neuro-affirmative, hopefully providing useful info and a safe space for those with autism, ADHD, and other neuro-minorities. OTC is LGBTQIA+ affirming, supporting individuals of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
Aims & Ethics
Main Aim
Our main aim is to provide an impartial online information resource and community for adult neurodivergent individuals, run by neurodivergent individuals (paid), funded by income from the site itself.
Paid Staff
Whether it’s once-off help with setting up Off The Couch, or ongoing paid writing staff, we want to help financially support neurodivergent people if we can. It’s hard enough trying to survive as a neurodivergent adult in a neurotypical financial, capitalist system! Even if we can help support only a few ND businesses and people, I think it’s well worth doing.
Income (and where it comes from)
Income to pay for all staff (including me, the founder, who provided startup capital), comes from display advertising, affiliate marketing (such as Amazon Associates), and hopefully in the future from corporate sponsorship – yes, we will be playing capitalism in order to achieve financial support!
Affiliate Marketing
Where we use affiliate marketing, this will be as transparent as possible. We will never recommend a product just for the sake of it, it’ll be something that our staff have liked, something that we’ve polled on social media that came up top, or if we do happen to ever be sent freebies we’ll only say we like said product if we actually do..
Our Community Forum
We provide directories of ND-owned businesses, neuro-affirmative healthcare providers, research and global tools and supports via our community forum. We do not personal endorse any of the people, items, supports etc. listed in any of these directories. It goes without saying that any medical provider listed, any research article etc. is not medical advice and should not be viewed as such – please always consult with your doctor.
- There are no criteria for inclusion in the ND-owned business directory, we won’t ask for confirmation of anyone being ND, we trust that when someone posts a business to the directory, that they are ND. The aim of this section of the forum is simply to offer some free advertising and traffic for ND-owned businesses
- The neuro-affirmative healthcare provider directory is compiled via forum users themselves – either it’s a healthcare provider that an ND person has had a good experience with, or it’s a healthcare provider who has had specific training in ND patient needs and accommodations. Again, we don’t endorse any specific healthcare provider in the directory and ask that anyone considering making an appointment with any of these healthcare providers does their due diligence beforehand
- The research directory is impartial, and only evidence-based research is included. We may not agree with the content or outcome of said research ourselves, but if it’s research-backed, we include it
- We provide a forum to compile a global directory of supports in areas such as employment, charities, public transport assistance programs, lanyards/card programmes from forum users. Again, we don’t endorse any specific ones unless stated
