When you skim the résumé of Italian service-designer Simone Favarin, two things jump out: longevity and impact. Over a 25-year career he has collected Webby honours and Interactive Key Awards for projects for brands such as Juventus F.C. and IVECO, while steering UX and AI programmes across Europe (Simone Favarin – simonefavarin.com – LinkedIn). Yet his most ambitious creation began only after a late personal epiphany. At 40, he learned that what he had always read as quirks were in fact traits of autism: “For forty years I believed I was neurotypical; then I got an autism diagnosis and switched to ‘neurodivergent’—though of course I had been neurodivergent all along.”
That discovery reframed Favarin’s twin “absorbing interests”—technology and communication—into a mission. “I have two big special interests: technology, and communication,” he laughs, noting that they colour everything from AI-driven cybersecurity to the gems he cuts for experimental jewellery. Instead of narrowing focus, the diagnosis widened his lens: how could design thinking make the online world work for people who, like him, process it differently?
From Designer to Network Builder
The answer is Aspergeronline, a non-profit digital hub Favarin founded in early 2024. “Aspergeronline.org is a connector,” he explains. “We built vertical sites on different spectrum topics, and 99 percent of our content is clinical–scientific: it’s donated by clinicians, not opinions.” The platform hosts free self-assessment tests, a living map of public and private diagnostic centres, and a Discourse-based community whose chat history auto-deletes every 30 days to protect privacy.
Numbers suggest the formula resonates. In its first full year the network drew 338 000 unique visitors, seven hours of average engagement and three million recorded events—on a shoestring, open-source stack. Offline, Aspergeronline’s debut fundraiser packed 1 700 seats in Turin; Favarin recalls stepping onstage and opening with, “I’m Simone Favarin, president of Aspergeronline, and I’m autistic,” and feeling the entire hall fall silent before he delivered two data points that shattered stereotypes.
Designing for Accessibility—Ahead of the Act
Favarin’s design roots give the initiative a rigor rare in the non-profit world. Anticipating the EU Accessibility Act, he warns that “Europe finally woke up and said, ‘you must be more accessible’—yet there are very few designers who even know what that means.” Aspergeronline therefore treats accessibility as infrastructure, partnering with specialised vendors and open-sourcing its own AI-based widgets that translate dense clinical text into plain language.
Community as Agile Project
The project applies product-design sprints to social impact. Fortnightly online meet-ups are moderated by subject-matter experts—but the floor opens after 15 minutes so community voices drive the conversation, busting the myth that autistic people “don’t communicate.” A roadmap for 2025-26 shows the same iterative logic: redesign the site’s UI/UX, extend the diagnosis map to individual therapists, and roll out an AI-trained customer-care bot tuned to autistic communication styles.
Breaking the “Library Job” Stereotype
Favarin also fights the notion that autistic talent belongs in back-office cataloguing. More than 90 percent of Aspergeronline’s visuals are generated by neurodivergent creatives using a proprietary Stable Diffusion model, and travel pilots—such as a starlight tour of Italy’s Saint-Barthélemy Observatory—embed autistic contributors at every stage, from itinerary design to cinematic videography.
Why It Matters
In an information landscape still shaped by “Rain Man” caricatures, Favarin’s blend of hard metrics and lived narrative is powerful. “If design is the art of structuring experiences,” he says, “then inclusive design is structuring society so everyone can experience it.” His path from award-winning interface guru (Simone Favarin – Autismo, Spettro Autistico, Neurodivergenze) to outspoken neurodiversity advocate shows how expertise in pixels and workflows can redraw real-world boundaries.
Join the Network
Aspergeronline welcomes members, allies, and professionals worldwide; participation is free, email-list-free, and conversation-heavy. Whether you are a parent seeking reliable diagnostic information, a hiring manager scouting neurodivergent talent, or a designer curious about accessibility, Favarin’s hub offers both the data and the human connection to move the dialogue beyond buzzwords.
“We build the path,” Favarin says, “and then you decide whether to walk it.”
Walk it—and you just might help redesign inclusion itself.
(Photo courtesy of Alessandra Carmen Maria Clerici)