Take a moment and think back to grade school. There’s a common scenario where during recess, PE, or any other time there may be an organized game taking place, teams have to be formed. Usually, two captains draft their team on the spot. In a moment like this, where were you normally selected in the order of the draft? Were you selected right away? Selected in the middle? Or never selected at all? Growing up with a degenerative physical visible disability, I was often chosen l

If you take a video game “as is” and play it, you’re playing the “vanilla” version. If you install custom content to tailor it to your desired level of usability, visuals, or performance, you’re playing a “modded” version. What if we thought of real life as a game too? Using this perspective, the game is designed for a base of able-bodied and able-minded players, and disability is seen as a “bug” or permanent “debuff” to a character’s stats. There are several models of disab

Do you play music? I don't mean the radio. Do you play a musical instrument, or have you ever imagined inventing one? Many people learn the piano or guitar, but Dr. Chet Udell believes musical instruments tell a much bigger story about who we are and how we think. As a professor at Oregon State University, Dr Udell says, “Musical instruments are road markers that are crystalized artifacts about our technology, the materials that we have used, the culture, the methods, musi

We’re all familiar with Tourette’s Syndrome, right? It’s the condition that makes you swear uncontrollably? Well, no. That symptom is called “coprolalia”, and it only accounts for a small percentage of people living with Tourette’s—10-15%. Tics can be physical (motor tics) or verbal (vocal tics). As these names imply, motor tics are movement-based, and vocal tics are sound-based. In either case, while tics aren’t strictly involuntary, they don’t imply what we think they do. W

Note from Mitch Blatt: This article is written from the perspective of an INCIGHT Scholar, a college freshman at the close of his first year—a time marked by questioning, discovery, and rapid personal growth. Read on as William reflects on his experiences with an attentiveness that captures both uncertainty and insight, offering readers an honest look at the early stage of finding direction. Skyline seen from the University of Washington Hello, my name is William. I’m an IN

Bliss Louvar and her running partner are at the top of a hill, looking toward some of Salt Lake's gorgeous mountains. I was five years old in a sterile hospital room with strangers poking me with syringes and placing IVs while my mom and dad were crying. All I knew was that the hospital-grade cup with ice water had never tasted so good. Someone mentioned I had severe hyperglycemia, with blood sugar elevated around 650 mg/dL. I was just learning what numbers meant in kindergar

A visualization of human-technology interaction, depicting a hand connected to a circuit with vibrant, flowing lines, symbolizing data exchange, alongside a hand holding a stylus, signifying the blend of creativity and technology. When it comes to world-building (creating immersive fictional worlds, like Middle Earth or Dune’s Arrakis), there’s a golden rule: the world is only as believable as the logic you build into its foundation. If the physics are inconsistent or the soc

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” — Mark Twain