Triveni Goswami Vernal
Registered Special Educator (A64010)

Continuing the series on Self-Employment Opportunities for the Neurodiverse, today’s blog will shed light on the following—Graphic Designing and Digital Art, as possible vocations.

1) GRAPHIC DESIGNING: Graphic Designing involves using shapes, colours, images and words to communicate visual content in print and digital media. It is widely used in marketing. Many individuals on the Autism Spectrum are Visual Learners and have a great eye for details. Hence, they may find Graphic Designing interesting. The pre-requisite skills for this would involve identification of colours, numbers, shapes, establishing good eye-hand coordination, honing their fine motor and gross motor skills, familiarity with using the computer, navigation of the keys etc.

Source of Image: https://allstarsdigital.in/digital-marketing/the-role-of-graphic-design-in-the-digital-marketing-world/

ONLINE COURSES AND RESOURCES FOR GRAPHIC DESIGNING:
https://www.udemy.com/course/graphic-designing-for-people-with-autism-dyslexia-etc/
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/graphic-designing-for-people-with-autism-dyslexia-etc/index.asp
https://blueskygraphics.co.uk/graphic-design-learning-disabilities-autism/
https://www.canva.com/designschool/courses/
https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=graphic%20design
https://www.edx.org/learn/graphic-design
https://www.udemy.com/topic/graphic-design/
https://alison.com/course/graphic-design

2) DIGITAL ART: Digital Art refers to the creation of art works using digital tools. A basic tool to teach Digital Art is the MS Paint, a Paint tool on Windows. It is a simple app to draw, paint, and edit graphics. The pre-requisites to use this app are good eye-hand coordination, good fine motor and gross motor skills to be able to navigate the keys, identification of colours, shapes etc.

Source of Image: https://turbofuture.com/computers/Introduction-to-Ms-Paint
There are many more digital art programs available nowadays. The Canva app (https://www.canva.com/en_gb/), Photoshop (https://www.adobe.com/in/products/photoshop.html) , Sketchbook (https://www.sketchbook.com/) that can help an individual explore various tools and see what they are most interested in.

Source of Image: https://www.linearity.io/blog/digital-art/

ONLINE COURSES AND RESOURCES ON DIGITAL ART:
https://www.clipstudio.net/how-to-draw/archives/153315
https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-art-101-from-beginner-to-pro/
https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-painting-for-the-absolute-beginner/
https://www.udemy.com/course/the-ultimate-digital-painting-course-beginner-to-advanced/
https://www.skillshare.com/en/browse/digital-art
https://www.ankona.in/

*Amaze Charitable Trust (http://www.amazetrust.org/) based out of Coimbatore and Shankar Foundation’s Shraddha Saburi (https://shankarfoundation.org/) in Hyderabad, both run programs teaching Digital Art to Neurodiverse individuals. Amaze runs an online training program whereas, Shraddha Saburi runs an offline program.

In my next blog, I will be looking at two other vocations for Neurodiverse individuals.
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Author Triveni Goswami Vernal

Triveni Goswami Vernal is an Autism advocate, registered Special Educator (CRR A64010) and an Independent Researcher. Her areas of interest include Autism, Disability Rights, Gender, Art and Northeast studies. She is a mum to an 12 year old on the Autism Spectrum.

Digital Artworks done for this blog is by artist Kabir Vernal