Okay I know I’m posting this at near the end of the month but whatever
Last year Scratch added the pride flag and BLM support emojis, which are really great additions!
There’s another issue that I believe should be addressed via adding an emoji to support it, too, and that’s the rainbow infinity symbol.

The infinity symbol is used to represent neurodiversity, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: to be “different” mentally, having things like OCD, ADHD, and the most well known being autism. (I recommend reading more on the term online as it’s a bit too hard to explain in a few sentences)
It currently is what’s considered autism acceptance month, a month to ally and support autistic people due to all the abuse and stigma they go through, pretty much the ND version of pride month.

I’m an autistic lesbian and I would love it if Scratch added the rainbow infinity symbol to promote acceptance and awareness of things like autism and other neurotypes. Hopefully adding the infinity symbol will push people away from using the outdated and offensive puzzle piece symbols and help them learn of the more widely accepted infinity symbol. (The puzzle piece was created by allistics (non autistic people) and was originally an image of a puzzle piece with a child crying to represent how “autism makes you suffer” and then was taken by Autism Speaks which is a nasty organization. The blue coloring is because of how “autism only occurs in boys” (it doesn’t) and AS is just a bad organization to support in general, so it’s best to abandon the symbol)

There’s a few versions of the infinity symbol. The gold one, which is specifically for autistic people as the element gold is AU on the periodic table, and the rainbow one which represents neurodivergence in general.
I think it’d be a step in the right direction for Scratch to add a symbol that supports disabled people to the scratch emoji library, in a way similar to the previous pride and BLM emojis.

I don’t see why this would be a bad idea to add, it’s very harmless and would be very beneficial. Many Scratch users are autistic, and there’s u fortunately a lot of projects out there using the outdated symbol which many people are understandably offended by. So, by adding the infinity symbol as an emoji it’ll be very welcoming to us ND folk and would be important in educating about the proper symbols to use.

I think it's good. Moreover, this is Japanese data, but now 1 in 10 people have ADHD.

Bump

I support because it would be very helpful for other Scratchers, but what would you type to get that emoji?

Down with the blue puzzle piece, this would help with stepping away from Autism Speaks and garbage like that.

Pandan_the_coder wrote:

I support because it would be very helpful for other Scratchers, but what would you type to get that emoji?

Hmm, good question…
Maybe _infinity_? Neurodivergence is likely too hard to spell for many people, and it’s a very long word which would take up a lot of character space in comments. _nd_ could work, as it’s the abbreviation for neurodivergence and other emojis are abbreviations (BLM,10mil). Or _8_ as infinity is a sideways 8.
I suppose it’s up to the ST

Very bad mockup:

Steve0Greatness wrote:

Very bad mockup:

Nice!
I’ll come up with a cleaner mock-up later, but that one is a good start!

I made this for use on the forums:
Support! It's great to support diversity, especially for neurotypes.

lolecksdeehaha wrote:

I made this for use on the forums:
Support! It's great to support diversity, especially for neurotypes.

I like it!
Can I add this one and Steve0Greatness’ mock-up to the OP to give examples? I’ll credit you by linking your post as a source.

support, i often recommend that

maybe it could be _infinity_

M1mikyu wrote:

Hmm, good question…
Maybe _infinity_? Neurodivergence is likely too hard to spell for many people, and it’s a very long word which would take up a lot of character space in comments. _nd_ could work, as it’s the abbreviation for neurodivergence and other emojis are abbreviations (BLM,10mil). Or _8_ as infinity is a sideways 8.
I suppose it’s up to the ST

I like _infinity_ its simple and easy to remember
I also support this idea, there's no drawbacks at all

promixels123 wrote:

M1mikyu wrote:

Hmm, good question…
Maybe _infinity_? Neurodivergence is likely too hard to spell for many people, and it’s a very long word which would take up a lot of character space in comments. _nd_ could work, as it’s the abbreviation for neurodivergence and other emojis are abbreviations (BLM,10mil). Or _8_ as infinity is a sideways 8.
I suppose it’s up to the ST

I like _infinity_ its simple and easy to remember
I also support this idea, there's no drawbacks at all

I agree

If scratch added pride and BLM emojis I think it’s only fair to add the neurodiversity symbol!

Bump

I'm gonna say no support, because I just don't get why. Autistic people like you and I may “think differently”, but it doesn't really feel like it needs something special. People with mental disorders haven't been, say, outlawed, or had incredibly widespread discrimination against, unlike other emojis that have been present.
Adding to this, what would this add? It's not like people are going to go around saying “neurodivergent rights” or something, because they haven't been lost* (*okay… that's kinda wrong, but it was only for people thinking they could “fix” major neurodivergent people in the past – it's all passed, either way).
At least I'd rather not be treated any differently than others for the very small effects it has for me.

M1mikyu wrote:

Can I add this one and Steve0Greatness’ mock-up to the OP to give examples? I’ll credit you by linking your post as a source.

go ahead.(this is for my mockup)

Steve0Greatness wrote:

M1mikyu wrote:

Can I add this one and Steve0Greatness’ mock-up to the OP to give examples? I’ll credit you by linking your post as a source.

go ahead.(this is for my mockup)

+ me, it's fine to add it

Geotale wrote:

I'm gonna say no support, because I just don't get why. Autistic people like you and I may “think differently”, but it doesn't really feel like it needs something special. People with mental disorders haven't been, say, outlawed, or had incredibly widespread discrimination against, unlike other emojis that have been present.
Adding to this, what would this add? It's not like people are going to go around saying “neurodivergent rights” or something, because they haven't been lost* (*okay… that's kinda wrong, but it was only for people thinking they could “fix” major neurodivergent people in the past – it's all passed, either way).
At least I'd rather not be treated any differently than others for the very small effects it has for me.

1- I hate to say this but there is indeed widespread discrimination against disabled people. Just look at some of Autism Speaks’ commercials, showing parents claiming they want to kill their children but don’t as they want their “normal kid” to be okay, a mom forcing her daughter onto the swing and the girl cries since she doesn’t want to go on and then a bunch of people stare at the mom and the mom claims it’s because the daughter is embarrassing when really the issue is that she’s forcing her to do something she doesn’t want to do that really isn’t that big of a deal. And the parents were portrayed to be in the right in these commercials (????????) (I apologize ST if these things are considered to be “too graphic” to mention on Scratch. I toned it down as much as possible but I feel like it’s important to state as it’s for educational purposes, and similar things have been said to raise awareness over the issues with black people and LGBTQ people) There’s also the “I am Autism” commercial, claiming it’ll ruin your marriage, make your parents divorce, you lose all your money, that it’s an “invisible disease” blah blah blah and just reading the script infuriates me.

There’s also MANY kids who use autism/autistic as an insult and a derogatory adjective.

And don’t forget about how many school programs to “help” autistic people are actually abusive, doing things like locking kids in small rooms (smaller than a bathroom!) for “misbehaving” and refusing to give them food or water until they’re “calm”, outright ignoring kids, physically restraining them just for yelling and increasingly tightening their grip until you stop moving, and just other nasty stuff I can’t even mention here. I was forced into these programs my whole life and have SEVERE PTSD as a result. I know not everyone has gone through this, but it needs to be more well known.

2- I think it’d add the same things the BLM and pride emojis did - positive representation and awareness. More people should be aware of the proper symbols to use, and it only makes sense for this symbol to be added when the other two are official emojis. There’s a large neurodivergent community on Scratch that deserves representation too!
Don’t forget how Scratch recently featured a rainbow infinity project. If they featured that, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t add an emoji of it!

3- that’s very valid, but it has also negatively impacted MANY people. While it doesn’t really “negatively impact” me on its own, the issue was the abuse and stigma I’ve had to deal with as a result.

Sorry for the long post, I just needed to make this explanation. Apologies if it sounds rude.

This will also help to stop people using it as an insult