Student toolkit

For students who suspect — or know — their brain works differently, and for anyone whose studying feels harder than it should. Everything here works without a diagnosis; a diagnosis just unlocks more of it.

First, reframe the problem

If you're studying twice as long as classmates for half the result, the usual advice — "try harder, focus more" — is aimed at the wrong target. Neurodivergent students don't typically have an effort problem; they have a fit problem between how their brain works and how studying is usually prescribed. The fix is changing the method, not the person.

Study techniques, ranked by actual evidence

A landmark review (Dunlosky et al., 2013) rated ten common learning techniques by the strength of their evidence. The results surprise most students:

• High utility — use these: Practice testing (retrieving from memory: flashcards, past papers, closing the book and writing what you remember) and distributed practice (spacing study over days instead of cramming). These two beat everything else, across ages and subjects.
• Moderate utility: interleaving (mixing problem types), elaborative interrogation ("why is this true?"), and self-explanation.
• Low utility — the popular ones: highlighting, re-reading, and summarizing showed weak or unreliable benefits. If your studying is mostly re-reading with a highlighter, that — not you — may be why it isn't working.

Making these ADHD- and dyslexia-friendly

• Practice testing suits distractible brains — it's active, self-paced, and gives constant feedback. Apps with built-in spaced repetition (e.g. flashcard apps) automate the scheduling so working memory doesn't have to.
• Spacing beats cramming even harder with ADHD, because it converts one impossible 6-hour focus session into six plausible 25-minute ones.
• Dyslexic learners: do retrieval out loud, use text-to-speech for the reading load, and ask for past-paper time accommodations early.

Structure hacks that respect how your brain works

• Shrink the start. The hardest moment is starting. Commit to 5 minutes, not the whole task — momentum usually follows, and if it doesn't, 5 minutes still happened.
• Externalize everything. One calendar, one task list, alarms for transitions. The goal is for nothing important to live only in your head.
• Body doubling. Studying alongside someone else (library, study group, even a video call) reliably helps many people with ADHD start and stay — low-cost, worth testing on yourself.
• Timers with breaks (25 min on / 5 off, adjust to taste). The evidence for the specific "Pomodoro" ritual is thin, but breaking work into short bounded sprints aligns with everything known about sustained attention — treat the exact numbers as personal preference, not science.
• Match the environment to your senses. Noise-cancelling headphones, quiet rooms, or background noise — sensory fit is not a luxury for neurodivergent students; it's often the difference between working and not.

Stress: what actually has evidence

• Sleep is the foundation, not the luxury. Sleep deprivation impairs attention and memory consolidation — an all-nighter typically costs more marks than it earns. If you fix one thing, fix this.
• Exercise reliably improves mood and short-term attention. It doesn't need to be a sport — brisk walks count.
• Mindfulness programs show moderate evidence for reducing anxiety and stress (Goyal et al., 2014). Helpful for many, not magic, and some restless minds prefer "moving meditation" — walking, swimming, knitting.
• Watch the caffeine-anxiety loop — late caffeine wrecks the sleep that attention depends on, and high doses feed anxiety.
• Perfectionism check: "done and submitted" beats "perfect and late" — a rule worth writing above your desk if deadlines are where things collapse.

Accommodations: you're probably entitled to more than you think

• 🇮🇳 India: the RPwD Act 2016 mandates accommodations in education and reserves seats in government higher-education institutions for students with benchmark disabilities (which include autism and specific learning disabilities). With a disability certificate/UDID: board-exam concessions (extra time, scribe — see your board's current circular), university exam accommodations, and entrance-exam provisions (JEE, NEET, UPSC and others have documented scribe/extra-time rules). Most universities now have an Equal Opportunity Cell — that's your disability-services office; ask for it by name.
• Most universities and many schools elsewhere have a disability / accessibility services office. In the US this runs through the ADA and Section 504; in the UK through the Equality Act 2010 (plus Disabled Students' Allowance for funded support); most countries have an equivalent.
• Typical accommodations: extended exam time, separate quiet rooms, note-taking support, recorded lectures, extensions, assistive software.
• Usually you'll need documentation of a diagnosis — but talk to the office before you have one: they can advise on interim support and sometimes help arrange assessment.
• Using accommodations is not an unfair advantage. Glasses aren't cheating for eyes; extra time isn't cheating for a slower-decoding brain. It levels the field to let your actual understanding show.

When it's more than stress

Campus counseling exists for exactly the moments when workload turns into hopelessness, panic, or numbness. If your low periods last weeks, take the depression check and consider talking to someone. And if things ever feel unsafe: India — Tele-MANAS 14416 (24/7, free) or iCall +91 91529 87821 · US — call/text 988 · UK & ROI — 116 123 · findahelpline.com.

Sources for this page

• Dunlosky J, Rawson KA, Marsh EJ, Nathan MJ, Willingham DT. Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. 2013;14(1):4–58. [link]
• Goyal M, et al. Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2014;174(3):357–368. [link]
• Walker MP. The role of sleep in cognition and emotion. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009;1156:168–197. [link]
• Cerrillo-Urbina AJ, et al. The effects of physical exercise in children with ADHD: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Child Care Health Dev. 2015;41(6):779–788. [link]
• US Dept. of Education / UK Government — accommodation frameworks: IDEA, Disabled Students' Allowance (UK).

Questions people actually ask

Can I diagnose myself with these tests?

No — and we've built the site to be honest about that everywhere. These are screening tools: they estimate whether a professional evaluation is worth your time. Diagnosis requires a clinician assessing your full history, ruling out other explanations, and applying formal criteria. What self-screening can legitimately do: organize your observations, give you shared language, and help you decide what to do next.

Do online screeners actually mean anything?

The instruments here (ASRS, AQ-10, OCI-R, MDQ, GAD-7, PHQ-9) are the same ones many clinicians hand patients on paper — they're published, validated, and we use their official scoring. What changes online is context: no clinician to interpret, and you may answer differently on a bad week. So: meaningful signal, honest limits.

Is it too late to get diagnosed as an adult?

No. Adults are diagnosed with ADHD and autism every day, including in their 50s, 60s and beyond. Many report the diagnosis reframed their entire life story — replacing "I was lazy/broken" with an accurate explanation. Supports, accommodations, and (for some conditions) treatment work in adulthood too.

What if my doctor dismisses my concerns?

It happens, especially to women and to high-functioning maskers. You're allowed to: bring printed screening results and concrete examples; say explicitly "I'd like a referral for a formal assessment"; ask for the refusal to be noted in your record; seek a second opinion. Being organized and specific ("this pattern has been lifelong, here are examples, here's my screen result") makes dismissal harder.

Can I have more than one of these conditions?

Yes — co-occurrence is the norm, not the exception. ADHD + dyslexia, autism + ADHD, DCD + dyslexia, tics + OCD are all common pairs, and anxiety or depression frequently accompany any of them. That's why a proper assessment looks broadly rather than confirming a single label.

Will a diagnosis go on my record and hurt my career?

Medical records are confidential; employers don't see them. In many countries (US: ADA; UK: Equality Act) disclosure at work is your choice, and if you do disclose, you gain legal protection and the right to reasonable adjustments. A few specific careers (e.g. military, commercial aviation) have their own medical rules — check those before pursuing formal diagnosis if they apply to you.

I'm scared of being put on medication.

Nobody can make you take anything. Diagnosis and treatment are separate decisions — many people pursue assessment purely for self-understanding and accommodations. If you do consider medication, it's a choice made with a prescriber, trialable, and reversible. For ADHD specifically, medication has some of the strongest evidence in psychiatry, but it remains exactly that: an option.

What if I score high here but the professional says no?

That happens, and it's the system working — screeners deliberately over-flag so they miss fewer people. A good evaluation that rules out ADHD usually identifies what is driving your difficulties, which is the real prize. If the "no" came without a serious look, a second opinion is reasonable.

Why don't you have accounts or logins?

Deliberate choice. This is sensitive health information: the safest data is data that never leaves your device. No account also means no barrier for the hesitant 2 a.m. visitor — which is exactly who this site is for. Your results live in your browser; you can export them to a file (see Sources & privacy) and re-import them on another device.

Is neurodivergence a disability or a difference?

Honest answer: both framings are true for different people, and often for the same person in different contexts. The neurodiversity movement rightly pushed back on deficit-only views; the disability framing rightly secures legal protections and support. You don't have to pick a side to use this site — or to understand yourself.

I'm in India — where do I actually start?

Three good entry points, in order of ease: (1) Call Tele-MANAS at 14416 — free, 24/7, 20+ languages; beyond crisis support, its counsellors can point you to services near you. (2) A psychiatry OPD at a government hospital or medical college — no referral needed in India, and fees are minimal; or a private psychiatrist if you prefer. (3) For learning-disability or autism assessment, an RCI-registered clinical psychologist (ask for the CRR number) or a center like NIMHANS, Action For Autism, or Ummeed. If a diagnosis is confirmed, ask about a disability certificate/UDID under the RPwD Act 2016 — it unlocks exam concessions and workplace accommodation rights. The full pathway is in our Next steps guide.

Was this site written by AI? Should I trust it?

Parts of the educational content were drafted with AI assistance, then checked against the published sources cited throughout — and we tell you this precisely so you calibrate accordingly. Two things protect you: the questionnaires themselves are not AI-generated (they're published instruments reproduced verbatim with official scoring), and every factual claim links to its source so you can verify it yourself. Treat the explanatory text like any well-referenced article: a starting point for your own research, not an oracle. When the site and a qualified professional disagree, believe the professional.

Can I take these checks in another language?

Not on this site yet — and that's a scientific choice, not an oversight. Translating a screener changes how people answer, so only professionally validated translations should be used. The good news: official validated translations exist. The PHQ-9 and GAD-7 are free in dozens of languages at phqscreeners.com, and the WHO's ASRS has licensed translations used in clinics worldwide. Print one in your language and take it to a clinician who speaks it.

How secure is my data, really?

Your answers never leave your device — there is no account and no user database, and a strict Content Security Policy stops the page from talking to anything except its own origin and Cloudflare's analytics endpoint. The only thing transmitted is anonymous counts ("a check was completed today"), with no cookies, no IPs stored, and no identifiers — and you can opt out even of that under Sources & privacy. The honest remaining risk is your own device: anyone using your unlocked browser could open the site and see your results. On a shared computer, use a private/incognito window or the erase button.

Who made this and can I trust it?

Every questionnaire is a published instrument with its citation shown on the check and on the Sources page — nothing was invented for this site. The guidance text follows the mainstream clinical literature (DSM-5-TR, NICE guidelines, the consensus statements cited throughout). And the site's core promise is stated everywhere: it will tell you what it can't know.

Next steps: a practical guide

Who can diagnose ADHD

• Psychiatrists — medical doctors who can diagnose and prescribe medication.
• Clinical psychologists / neuropsychologists — can diagnose and provide detailed cognitive assessment and therapy (they don't prescribe in most places).
• Primary-care doctors (GPs) — a good first stop everywhere. Some diagnose and treat ADHD themselves; others will refer you. In many countries the GP referral is the required path.
• For children and teens: pediatricians, child psychiatrists, and child psychologists.

🇮🇳 If you're in India: your pathway

• No referral needed. Unlike the UK's GP-gatekeeper system, in India you can book a psychiatrist directly — at a government hospital or medical college psychiatry OPD (very low cost), or privately. For assessment-heavy questions (learning disabilities, autism, detailed ADHD testing), you'll also want a clinical psychologist registered with the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) — ask for the RCI registration (CRR) number; it's the credential that matters.
• Don't know where to begin? Call Tele-MANAS at 14416 (or 1-800-891-4416) — the Government of India's free 24/7 mental-health line in 20+ languages. Beyond crisis support, its counsellors can tell you what services exist near you and how to reach them. telemanas.mohfw.gov.in
• Institutes of national importance — NIMHANS Bengaluru (nimhans.ac.in) and other government institutes and medical colleges run adult psychiatry and child-development OPDs with fees a fraction of private rates; most district hospitals now have a psychiatrist under the District Mental Health Programme.
• Know your legal rights: the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 recognizes autism spectrum disorder, specific learning disabilities (dyslexia and related), and mental illness as disabilities — opening the door to education and workplace accommodations and, where applicable, a disability certificate / UDID card (swavlambancard.gov.in). ADHD is not a standalone listed disability, but its co-occurring conditions often are — a clinician can advise.
• On stigma: it's real, and it's shifting fast — Tele-MANAS alone has answered millions of calls. Seeking assessment is increasingly ordinary in Indian cities and telehealth reaches everywhere else. You're not "making a fuss"; you're getting information about your own brain.

What an assessment actually involves

Usually one to three appointments. Expect:

• A detailed clinical interview: your current difficulties, childhood history, school and work history, family history, sleep, mood, and substance use.
• Rating scales — often including the same ASRS questionnaire used on this site, plus longer ones.
• Collateral information where possible: old school reports, or input from a parent, partner, or someone who knew you as a child.
• Screening for other explanations and co-occurring conditions (anxiety, depression, sleep disorders) — this is a feature, not a detour; they're common alongside ADHD and change the treatment plan.
• Sometimes computerized attention tests or cognitive testing. Helpful context, but no single test proves or disproves ADHD.

The medical side: rule-outs a good clinician will check

Attention, memory, and mood symptoms have physical mimics. Expect — and welcome — questions or tests covering: sleep (including snoring/sleep apnea), thyroid function, anemia and vitamin deficiencies (B12, iron), medication side effects, alcohol and substance use, hearing and vision, and for many women, perimenopause. This isn't the clinician doubting you — ruling these out is how a real answer gets built.

How to prepare (this genuinely helps)

• Bring your appointment pack from this site — a printable summary of your results — as a conversation starter.
• Bring a list of all medications and supplements you take, and any relevant medical history (sleep issues, thyroid, past mental-health care).
• Write down specific examples: missed deadlines, lost items, abandoned projects, relationship friction, near-misses while driving. Concrete beats general.
• Dig up school report cards if you can — comments like "doesn't apply herself," "so much potential," "disruptive," or "daydreams" are gold for establishing childhood onset.
• Ask a parent, sibling, or long-time partner what they remember or notice.
• List what you've already tried (planners, apps, caffeine, deadlines-as-motivation) and how it went.

Practical realities

• Waitlists can be long in public systems. Get on the list early — you can always cancel. Ask about cancellation lists.
• Cost varies widely. Options that can reduce it: university training clinics, sliding-scale providers, telehealth ADHD services (check they're reputable and do a genuine clinical interview, not a 10-minute quiz), and asking your insurer which local providers are covered.
• You're allowed to seek an assessment. Wanting clarity about your own brain is legitimate. Clinicians assess adults for ADHD every day.

If you decide to wait — or your result was low

Not pursuing an evaluation right now is a valid choice, especially if your difficulties are mild and manageable. Evidence-friendly things that help attention for everyone, ADHD or not:

• Sleep first. Chronic short sleep produces ADHD-like symptoms. If your sleep is poor, fixing it may answer your question by itself.
• Regular exercise — reliable short-term boosts to attention and mood.
• External structure over willpower: timers, one visible to-do list, calendars with alarms, doing focused work alongside someone else ("body doubling").
• Reduce friction: one fixed place for keys/wallet/phone; start tasks by committing to just 5 minutes.
• Re-check later. If things get harder — new job, new baby, new semester — retake the check and reconsider.

When to seek help promptly, whatever your score

Communities and further reading

• 🇮🇳 India: Tele-MANAS (call 14416 — free, 24/7 government mental-health support and signposting) · NIMHANS · Action For Autism · Ummeed · Maharashtra Dyslexia Association — see also the India pathway above.
• CHADD — the largest ADHD support and advocacy organization (US, resources useful anywhere).
• ADDitude Magazine — practical, clinician-reviewed articles.
• ADHD UK — UK-specific pathways including NHS Right to Choose.
• NIMH ADHD overview — plain-language summary from the US National Institute of Mental Health.

For parents: worried about your child?

A calm guide to what to do — and what not to do — when something about your child's attention, learning, movement, or social world has you wondering.

Step 1: Observe and write down, don't diagnose

• Note specific behaviors with dates: "couldn't stay seated through dinner all week," "meltdown at the birthday party when the schedule changed," "reads a page then can't say what it said."
• Note where they happen — home, school, both? Clinicians need cross-setting evidence.
• Ask the teacher what they see. Teachers watch dozens of same-age children daily; their comparison point is gold.
• Keep school reports, work samples, and any notes home. This folder becomes the backbone of any future assessment.

Step 2: Start with the pediatrician / GP

• Bring your notes. Say plainly: "I'd like my child evaluated for [attention / learning / development] concerns."
• Expect them to use structured tools — for ADHD, typically the Vanderbilt or similar rating scales filled in by you and the teacher, per the American Academy of Pediatrics guideline (Wolraich et al., 2019).
• Hearing and vision checks come early — they're common, fixable mimics of attention and reading problems.
• For autism concerns in toddlers: mention specific examples (response to name, pointing, pretend play). Developmental screening is standard; ask for it directly if it isn't offered.

Step 3: Use the school system — it has legal duties

• 🇮🇳 India: under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, autism and specific learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia) are recognized disabilities, and schools have duties toward inclusive education. In practice: get an assessment from a government hospital, or an RCI-registered clinical psychologist / recognized center, leading (where applicable) to a disability certificate / UDID card (swavlambancard.gov.in). With certification, CBSE, CISCE, and state boards provide exam concessions — extra time, a scribe, calculator use, and language-exemption flexibility varying by board (check the current circular on cbse.gov.in or your board's site). NIOS (open schooling) is a legitimate, flexible route for children the mainstream system is failing. Strong parent-facing organizations: Action For Autism (Delhi), Ummeed Child Development Center (Mumbai), and the Maharashtra Dyslexia Association.
• United States: you can request an evaluation from the school in writing at any time, free. Two routes: an IEP under IDEA (specialized instruction, measurable goals) or a 504 plan under the Rehabilitation Act (accommodations like extra time, seating, breaks — broader eligibility, common for ADHD). See CHADD's educational rights guide and Understood.org's IEP vs 504 explainer.
• United Kingdom: start with the school's SENCO (special educational needs coordinator) for SEN Support; if needs are greater, you can request an EHC needs assessment from the local authority — see gov.uk's SEN guidance.
• Elsewhere: most systems have an equivalent "school-based support first, formal assessment second" ladder — the school is almost always the right early call.

What helps at home, whatever the outcome

• Predictable routines, one instruction at a time, and warnings before transitions.
• Catch them being good: specific praise beats punishment for shaping behavior — the evidence behind every parent-training program.
• Protect sleep fiercely; it magnifies or masks everything else.
• Say out loud that struggling at school is not laziness or badness. Children build their self-story young; a wrong story ("I'm stupid") does more damage than most symptoms.

What not to do

• Don't wait years "to see if they grow out of it" when problems are causing real distress — early support changes trajectories, and evaluations take months to schedule anyway.
• Don't pre-announce a diagnosis to the child ("you have ADHD") before a professional confirms it — frame it as "we're figuring out how your brain works best."
• Don't rely on elimination diets, supplements, or screen bans as treatment — the evidence doesn't support them as causes or cures.
• Don't fight the school alone if it stalls — parent advocacy organizations (CHADD, IPSEA in the UK) know the process and your rights.

Sources & further reading

• Wolraich ML, et al. Clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of ADHD in children and adolescents. Pediatrics. 2019;144(4):e20192528. [link]
• CDC — Clinical care of ADHD in children. [link]
• CHADD — Educational rights. [link]
• Understood.org — IEPs vs 504 plans. [link]
• UK Government — Children with special educational needs. [link]

Neurodiversity pride & community

Screening and diagnosis are one half of the story. The other half is a worldwide community that treats different minds as part of human variation — with its own history, language, celebrations, and hard-won advocacy.

A short history

• Late 1990s: Australian sociologist Judy Singer — herself on the autism spectrum — coins "neurodiversity," arguing neurological difference deserves the same social-model framing as other dimensions of human diversity. Journalist Harvey Blume popularizes it in The Atlantic (1998).
• 2005: Autistic Pride Day (June 18) begins — created by autistic people, not charities, celebrating identity rather than seeking cure.
• 2006: The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) forms around the disability-rights principle "Nothing about us without us."
• 2018: Neurodiversity Celebration Week launches (founded by student Siena Castellon), now observed by thousands of schools and workplaces each March.
• Ongoing: October is ADHD Awareness Month; World Autism Acceptance efforts increasingly emphasize acceptance over mere awareness — a shift the community itself drove.

Language people care about

• Identity-first vs person-first: many autistic adults prefer "autistic person" (identity-first) over "person with autism," seeing autism as inseparable from who they are — while others prefer person-first. The respectful move: use what the individual prefers, and don't correct people about their own identity.
• Neurodivergent / neurotypical: community terms, not diagnoses — useful shorthand for "brain works differently from the statistical norm" and its opposite.
• Difference and disability: pride and support needs coexist. Celebrating neurodivergence doesn't erase the need for accommodations, and needing accommodations doesn't diminish the pride.

Strengths, stated honestly

You'll see claims that ADHD grants superpowers or that all autistic people have savant skills — well-meaning, but overclaiming helps no one. What's honestly supportable: many neurodivergent people report and demonstrate real strengths — hyperfocus channeled into deep expertise, pattern recognition, originality of thought, honesty, intense knowledge in areas of interest — and the same traits carry costs in unaccommodating environments. Pride worth having is pride in the whole picture, including the work it takes.

Community & advocacy organizations

🇮🇳 India

• Action For Autism (AFA) — India's pioneering autism organization (Delhi): parent training, advocacy, and the Open Door school; instrumental in getting autism recognized in Indian law.
• Ummeed Child Development Center — Mumbai non-profit for children with developmental disabilities and their families; training, assessment, and family support.
• Maharashtra Dyslexia Association — assessment guidance, remediation, and advocacy for specific learning disabilities.
• Tele-MANAS — Government of India's free 24/7 mental-health support line (14416), in 20+ languages.
• NIMHANS — the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru; clinical services and authoritative public resources.
• iCall (TISS) — psychosocial counselling helpline (+91 91529 87821) run by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

International

• Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) — run by and for autistic people; policy, resources, and the "Welcome to the Autistic Community" guide.
• Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network (AWN) — community and resources for groups most often missed by diagnosis.
• National Autistic Society (UK) — the UK's largest autism charity; practical guides and diagnosis pathways.
• CHADD — ADHD support, education, and advocacy; local chapters and parent resources.
• ADDitude Magazine — clinician-reviewed, lived-experience-rich ADHD publication.
• ADHD UK — UK-specific support including NHS Right to Choose guidance.
• British Dyslexia Association — dyslexia and dyscalculia resources, adult checklists, helpline.
• International Dyslexia Association — research-grounded fact sheets and provider directories.
• International OCD Foundation — OCD education, ERP therapist directory, support groups.
• Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) — peer support groups, online and local.
• Tourette Association of America — education, CBIT provider info, youth programs.
• Understood.org — learning differences and ADHD, strong on school rights and workplace.
• Neurodiversity Celebration Week — free events, school and workplace resources each March.
• Embrace Autism — autism screening research summaries and adult-diagnosis experience articles.

Sources

• Singer J. NeuroDiversity: The Birth of an Idea. 2017 (originally 1998 honors thesis, University of Technology Sydney).
• Blume H. "Neurodiversity." The Atlantic, September 1998. [link]
• den Houting J. Neurodiversity: an insider's perspective. Autism. 2019;23(2):271–273. [link]
• Neurodiversity Celebration Week — about. [link]

Being an ally

How to talk about neurodivergence, what to say and what not to say, and how to actually be useful — at university, at work, in friend groups, and in group projects. Written for the classmate, colleague, manager, friend, or partner who wants to get it right.

Inclusive language: the short course

• Mirror, then ask. Many autistic adults prefer identity-first language ("autistic person"); others prefer person-first ("person with autism") — research shows preferences genuinely differ (Kenny et al., 2016). Use what the person uses. If unsure, ask once, quietly. Never correct someone about their own identity.
• Don't use diagnoses as adjectives. "I'm so OCD about my desk," "the weather is bipolar," "she's psycho" — these turn someone's hardest struggle into your seasoning. Say "particular," "unpredictable," whatever you actually mean.
• Retire the functioning labels. "High-functioning" quietly means "your needs are ignorable"; "low-functioning" means "your strengths are ignorable." Talk about specific needs and strengths instead.
• "Normal" has a better replacement. Say "typical" or "neurotypical" when contrasting — "normal" makes the other person abnormal by definition.
• Neurodivergent ≠ intellectual disability ≠ mental illness. Don't collapse them. And someone's diagnosis is medical information, not gossip — repeating it without permission isn't sharing, it's outing.

What not to say — and what works instead

• ❌ "You don't look autistic / ADHD." → ✅ "Thanks for telling me." (There is no look. This "compliment" tells them their mask worked and must stay on.)
• ❌ "Everyone's a little ADHD these days." → ✅ "What does it look like for you?" (Everyone is sometimes distracted; not everyone's life is shaped by it. This line, however kindly meant, dismisses a diagnosis in one breath.)
• ❌ "But you did it fine yesterday!" → ✅ "Sounds like it varies — what helps on the harder days?" (Fluctuating capacity is a feature of these conditions, not evidence of faking.)
• ❌ "Have you tried planners / meditation / just focusing?" → ✅ "Want ideas, or do you just want me to listen?" (They have tried the planner. Ask before advising — always.)
• ❌ "Isn't everyone getting diagnosed now?" → ✅ Say nothing, or ask a real question. (Recognition rising isn't a fad; it's decades of missed people being found.)
• ❌ "You're so brave / inspiring" (for existing) → ✅ Treat them as a peer. Admiration-as-distance is still distance.
• ❌ "Are you sure? You seem fine to me." → ✅ "That must have taken a while to figure out. How are you feeling about it?" (Never debate someone's diagnosis. You've seen their performance, not their effort.)

When someone discloses to you

1. Thank them. Disclosure is a trust decision with real risk. "Thanks for trusting me with that" is a complete first sentence.
2. Don't relitigate it. Not "are you sure?", not "who diagnosed you?", not "my cousin has that and he's different."
3. Ask the only question that always works: "Is there anything that would help, or anything I should do differently?" Then actually do it.
4. Keep it theirs. Don't tell others — not even framed as concern. Ask: "Who else knows, so I don't put my foot in it?"
5. Don't make it their whole personality. They told you one fact about themselves, not their new name.

At university

• In group projects — the big one: put tasks, owners, and deadlines in writing in one shared place (verbal-only plans quietly exclude people with working-memory differences). Split work by strengths, not equal-looking slices. Build internal deadlines before the real one instead of resenting different pacing. And if a teammate struggles with the format — speaking up live, say — pass them the written channel instead of the judgment.
• Don't audit accommodations. Extra time isn't an advantage; it's a ramp. "Must be nice" costs someone weeks of paperwork and years of self-doubt.
• Share notes without ceremony. For someone who can listen or write but not both, your notes are access, not charity.
• Invite explicitly. "You should come" reads as politeness; "We're meeting at 6 at the canteen, want to join?" reads as an invitation. Vagueness excludes.
• Let people leave loud places without an exit interview. "Glad you came!" beats "Why are you leaving already?"

At work

• Agendas before meetings, decisions in writing after. This is the single highest-value habit — and it makes meetings better for everyone.
• Judge output, not style. Headphones, cameras off, fidgeting, no eye contact, odd hours where allowed — none of these are disrespect. Eye contact especially: demanding it can *reduce* an autistic colleague's ability to listen.
• One instruction channel. Task by chat, correction by hallway, update by email is a memory test, not a workflow. Consolidate.
• If you manage people: ask everyone — not just disclosed folks — "how do you work best, and what gets in your way?" It gives neurodivergent staff a safe door without forcing disclosure. Remember accommodations are legal rights (RPwD Act 2016 in India, ADA in the US, Equality Act in the UK), not favors you grant for good behavior. The US Job Accommodation Network catalogs cheap, concrete accommodation ideas by condition — most cost little or nothing.
• Interrupt the room, not the person. If a colleague gets talked over or their idea gets re-attributed, "I'd like to hear the rest of that" is allyship with teeth.

In friend groups and daily life

• Make plans concrete: time, place, who's coming, roughly how long. "Let's hang out sometime" is a puzzle; "Saturday, 5pm, my place, until whenever" is a plan.
• Don't take the cancellation personally. A cancelled plan is usually an empty battery, not a verdict on you. "No worries — want to reschedule or leave it open?" keeps the door open.
• Let texts be enough. Some people connect deeply but drain fast on calls and gatherings. Meet people in the channel where they're most themselves.
• Don't stage-manage their quirks in public. No apologizing for your friend, no "they're just like that" narration. They're not a situation to be handled.
• Check in after group events, not during. A quiet "that was a lot — you good?" afterward lands better than a spotlight in the moment.

Mistakes well-meaning allies make

• Armchair-diagnosing others. "Have you considered that you might be autistic?" is a conversation someone must start about themselves. You can describe patterns you notice with care, once, if you're close — you don't get to assign labels.
• Over-helping. Doing things for people they didn't ask you to do is infantilizing. Ask "want a hand?" and believe the answer.
• The superpower speech. "It's your superpower!" flattens real costs. Honest framing: real strengths, real struggles, both true (that's also this site's framing — see Pride & community · Allies).
• Making it about you. Your allyship shouldn't need an audience or a thank-you. The best allies are mostly invisible: things are just… easier around them.
• Understanding one person, generalizing to all. "My last autistic colleague liked X" is a fact about one person. Ask this one.

Supporting someone considering a diagnosis

• Listen first. If they've taken the checks here, let them show you what they want to show you — don't ask to see scores.
• Offer logistics, not verdicts: help finding a clinician, company for the appointment, childcare, a lift. (In India, that might mean helping them call Tele-MANAS at 14416 or find the psychiatry OPD — see Next steps.)
• Don't pressure in either direction — "get assessed already" and "you don't need a label" are both you deciding for them.
• If the assessment says no, that's not embarrassing and not the end — support them through the "what now," because the difficulties were real either way.

When you get it wrong

You will — everyone does. The repair is short: "Sorry, that was off — thanks for flagging it," correct the thing, move on. A brief fix respects them; a guilt performance makes them console you, which is the mistake happening twice.

Sources & further reading

• Kenny L, Hattersley C, Molins B, et al. Which terms should be used to describe autism? Perspectives from the UK autism community. Autism. 2016;20(4):442–462. [link]
• Hull L, et al. "Putting on my best normal": social camouflaging in adults with autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 2017;47(8):2519–2534. [link]
• Milton DEM. On the ontological status of autism: the "double empathy problem". Disability & Society. 2012;27(6):883–887. [link]
• Autistic Self Advocacy Network — identity-first language. [link]
• Job Accommodation Network (JAN) — practical workplace accommodation ideas by condition. [link]

Sources & how this check works

The questionnaire

The 18 screening questions are the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) Symptom Checklist, developed by the World Health Organization with researchers at Harvard Medical School and NYU. Part A (6 questions) is the validated screener: in the original validation study it identified adults likely to have ADHD with good accuracy in a general-population sample. We use the official scoring rules (the "shaded box" method): a response at or above each question's threshold counts as a positive item, and 4 or more positive items in Part A is a positive screen. Part B adds detail for discussion with a clinician but has no cutoff score.

The context questions

Our follow-up questions (childhood onset, duration, multiple settings, impairment) mirror the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria that a screener alone cannot assess. They don't change your ASRS score; they shape the guidance we give you, because a positive screen with no childhood history and a recent onset points more toward other causes (sleep, stress, mood) than ADHD.

The Focus Snapshot game

The game is a go/no-go task, a paradigm used in attention research and in clinical continuous-performance tests (CPTs). Research meta-analyses find that people with ADHD show, on average, more variable reaction times and more impulsive (commission) errors on such tasks (Kofler et al., 2013). However: an unstandardized browser game — with variable devices, screens, and distractions — cannot measure ADHD, and even clinical CPTs are never sufficient for diagnosis on their own. We include it as an engaging way to experience what these tasks measure, and we say so plainly on your results.

Key references

Journal links go to PubMed; guideline links go to the publishing body.

• Kessler RC, Adler L, Ames M, et al. The World Health Organization Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS): a short screening scale for use in the general population. Psychological Medicine. 2005;35(2):245–256. [link]
• American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed., Text Revision (DSM-5-TR). 2022 — diagnostic criteria for ADHD. [link]
• Faraone SV, Banaschewski T, Coghill D, et al. The World Federation of ADHD International Consensus Statement: 208 evidence-based conclusions about ADHD. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 2021;128:789–818. [link]
• Polanczyk G, de Lima MS, Horta BL, Biederman J, Rohde LA. The worldwide prevalence of ADHD: a systematic review and metaregression analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2007;164(6):942–948. [link]
• Simon V, Czobor P, Bálint S, Mészáros Á, Bitter I. Prevalence and correlates of adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: meta-analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry. 2009;194(3):204–211. [link]
• Quinn PO, Madhoo M. A review of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in women and girls: uncovering this hidden diagnosis. The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders. 2014;16(3). [link]
• Kofler MJ, Rapport MD, Sarver DE, et al. Reaction time variability in ADHD: a meta-analytic review of 319 studies. Clinical Psychology Review. 2013;33(6):795–811. [link]
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management. NICE guideline NG87. 2018 (updated). [link]
• Ustun B, Adler LA, Rudin C, et al. The World Health Organization adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder self-report screening scale for DSM-5. JAMA Psychiatry. 2017;74(5):520–526 — the DSM-5 update of the ASRS; this site presents the classic v1.1. [link]

The other checks: instruments & attribution

• Autism — AQ-10 (adult): Allison C, Auyeung B, Baron-Cohen S. Toward brief "red flags" for autism screening. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2012;51(2):202–212. Developed at the Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge; recommended for adult referral decisions in NICE guideline CG142 (cutoff ≥6). [paper] [NICE CG142]
• OCD — OCI-R: Foa EB, Huppert JD, Leiberg S, et al. The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory: development and validation of a short version. Psychological Assessment. 2002;14(4):485–496. Screening cutoff: total ≥21. [paper]
• Bipolar — MDQ: Hirschfeld RMA, Williams JBW, Spitzer RL, et al. Development and validation of a screening instrument for bipolar spectrum disorder: the Mood Disorder Questionnaire. Am J Psychiatry. 2000;157(11):1873–1875. Positive screen: ≥7 symptoms + co-occurrence + moderate/serious problems. [paper]
• Anxiety — GAD-7: Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JBW, Löwe B. A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166(10):1092–1097. Public domain. Bands: 5 mild / 10 moderate / 15 severe. [paper] [official site + translations]
• Depression — PHQ-9: Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JBW. The PHQ-9: validity of a brief depression severity measure. J Gen Intern Med. 2001;16(9):606–613. Public domain. Bands: 5/10/15/20. [paper] [official site + translations]
• Dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia: no validated brief adult self-screeners exist, so these pages use unscored reflection checklists compiled from British Dyslexia Association, International Dyslexia Association, and NHS descriptions, plus Blank et al. (2019) for DCD. We state this on the checklists themselves.
• Condition explainer sources are listed at the bottom of each Learn page.

India-specific references

• Tele-MANAS — National Tele Mental Health Programme, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. Helpline 14416 / 1-800-891-4416, 24/7, 20+ languages. [official site]
• The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 — recognizes autism spectrum disorder, specific learning disabilities, and mental illness among 21 disabilities; governs education and workplace accommodation duties. [Dept. of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities]
• UDID — Unique Disability ID / disability certificate portal, Government of India. [official portal]
• Rehabilitation Council of India — the statutory registry of qualified clinical psychologists and rehabilitation professionals (ask any assessor for their CRR number). [official site]
• NIMHANS — National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru. [official site]
• CBSE exam concessions for candidates with disabilities — see the board's current circulars. [cbse.gov.in]
• Crisis support: AASRA (+91 98204 66726, 24/7) [site] · iCall, TISS (+91 91529 87821) [site]

Privacy — and why there are no accounts

This site has no accounts and no cookies — deliberately. Screening yourself for these conditions is sensitive; your answers live only in this browser's local storage so you can pause and resume, and they are never transmitted anywhere.

What we do count: anonymous, aggregate usage statistics via our host Cloudflare — page views, which checks get started and completed, coarse outcome tiers (only "strong / moderate / low", never scores or answers), feature use, and bucketed time-on-site. No cookies, no fingerprinting, no IP addresses stored by us, no identifiers of any kind — the data literally cannot be traced back to a person. We honor your browser's Do-Not-Track and Global Privacy Control signals automatically, and you can additionally opt this device out below.

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Terms of use & legal notices

• Educational tool only. NeuroCompass provides educational information and self-administered screening questionnaires. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and nothing on this site creates a clinician–patient or any other professional relationship.
• Not for emergencies. If you or someone else may be in danger, contact your local emergency services or a crisis line immediately — do not rely on this site.
• Decisions are yours, with professionals. Always seek the advice of a qualified health professional with any questions about a medical or mental-health condition, and never disregard or delay professional advice because of something read here. Never start, stop, or change any medication based on this site.
• Intended for adults. The instruments here are adult instruments; the site is intended for users aged 18+ (younger visitors should involve a parent, guardian, or professional).
• No warranty. The site is provided "as is," without warranties of any kind. While instruments and scoring follow the cited publications, no guarantee is made that any content is error-free or suits your circumstances; to the fullest extent permitted by law, the creators accept no liability arising from use of the site.
• Employment, education, and legal contexts: screening results from this site are not evidence of disability status and do not substitute for the formal evaluations that employers, schools, courts, benefits agencies, or licensing bodies require.
• Instrument attribution: ASRS-v1.1 © World Health Organization; AQ-10 developed at the Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge; OCI-R (Foa et al.); MDQ (Hirschfeld et al.); GAD-7 and PHQ-9 are public domain (developed with support from Pfizer Inc.). Instruments are reproduced for educational screening use with attribution; all remaining content of this site may be reused for non-commercial purposes with attribution.
• AI-assisted content: parts of this site's educational text were drafted with AI assistance and reviewed against the cited sources. The screening questionnaires themselves are published instruments reproduced verbatim — not AI-generated. Errors remain possible in any text, human or AI-drafted; every claim is linked to its source so you can — and should — verify independently and do your own research.
• Data protection: this site collects and processes no personal data whatsoever. No accounts, no cookies, no identifiers; questionnaire answers remain in your browser's local storage under your control. The site records only anonymous aggregate usage counts (e.g., number of page views, number of checks completed by coarse outcome tier) with no way to link them to any person — which also means we could not respond to a data access request even in principle: we hold nothing about you.

Security: what protects your answers

• Architecture first: the strongest protection is that there is no user database to breach — your answers never leave your device, and the site works fully offline once loaded. The only thing ever transmitted is anonymous event counts ("a check was completed"), which contain nothing about you.
• Content Security Policy: the site instructs the browser to refuse all network connections and scripts except its own origin and Cloudflare's analytics endpoint — even if malicious content were somehow injected, it has nowhere else to send data.
• No referrer leakage: when you follow an external link, your browser is instructed not to tell that site you came from here.
• Import validation: data files you import are strictly re-validated field by field; anything unexpected is discarded, so a tampered file cannot inject content.
• Honest limits — no site is "hack-proof": what remains is your device. Anyone with access to your unlocked browser profile could open this site and see your results, and exported files are unencrypted. On a shared computer: use a private/incognito window (which erases local storage when closed), or the "Erase all my data" button below, and store exported files somewhere private.

Languages & translations

This site is currently English-only — deliberately, for now. Screening instruments can't be casually machine-translated: wording changes measurably alter how people answer, so only professionally validated translations should be used. Officially validated translations exist for most instruments here: the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 are freely available in dozens of languages at phqscreeners.com (Pfizer; no permission required), and the WHO's ASRS exists in many licensed translations. If you're more comfortable in another language, those official versions — taken to a clinician who speaks it — are the right tool.

Limitations, stated plainly

• This is a screening aid, not a diagnostic instrument, and it does not provide medical advice.
• The ASRS, AQ-10 (adult), OCI-R, MDQ, GAD-7, and PHQ-9 as presented here are adult instruments. Results for teens should be treated as informal; children need age-appropriate, parent/teacher-based tools administered by a professional.
• The reflection checklists (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia) have no scoring validity at all — they are structured self-observation, clearly labeled as such.
• Screeners produce false positives and false negatives. A positive screen means "worth discussing with a professional," not "you have ADHD." A negative screen lowers the likelihood but does not rule it out.