Terms of Use

The Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA), ADDA Support Groups, ADDA Social, Sparks, ADHD Global Gathering, the ADDAverse and other ADDA platforms, events and groups are organized to facilitate discussion and mutual support around life as an adult with ADHD. You may only join ADDA and use these resources in accordance with these Terms of Use.

We reserve the right to change the Terms of Use from time to time without notice, as we deem necessary. We encourage you to review the Terms of Use periodically to ensure you understand the latest version. Continued use of any ADDA online resources is deemed to be your acceptance of any changes to the Terms of Use. If ever you are unwilling to accept our Terms of Use, you should stop using any ADDA online resources.

Individuals under the age of 18 are prohibited from becoming an Individual or Professional member of ADDA. In registering as a member, you are acknowledging you are aged 18 or above.

Community Culture

ADDA’s culture is inclusive, supportive, creative, credible, and intentional. ADDA was created by adults with ADHD for adults with ADHD and is run by adults with ADHD. We celebrate our strengths, grow in our weaknesses, and empower our members to discover and reach their full potential. ADDA provides a welcoming and safe environment, delivers reliable information, encourages innovative approaches, and models ADHD best practices. ADDA provides members a safe, non-judgmental environment of mutual acceptance and understanding.

Advice or Sharing

Community members do not offer advice. Members share experiences as well as tools and resources they have found helpful. Their sharing may empower you.

ADDA does not offer coaching or therapy. ADDA does not provide individual or group counseling. If you are looking for counseling, professional advice, or coaching ADDA encourages individuals to seek evaluation and treatment of ADHD from a qualified professional in the disciplines of medicine, psychology, coaching, social work, professional counseling, or psychiatric nursing who not only has the appropriate license or certification, but also has training and experience in the differential diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in adults. Ideally, the professional would also have training or experience in cultural sensitivity.

Civility

No ADDA member may make damaging references to identifiable individuals. Members respect the right of other members to share their experiences. All disagreements will be expressed considerately.

• Listen respectfully, without interrupting.
• Listen actively and with an ear to understanding others’ views.
• Criticize ideas, not individuals.
• Commit to learning, not debating.
• Avoid blame, speculation, and inflammatory language.
• Allow everyone the chance to speak.

Peer Support

ADDA members participate in all support activities as adults with ADHD regardless of their professional qualifications or role outside of ADDA. They are not permitted to provide professional guidance in a professional capacity during ADDA supported activities or on ADDA platforms.

Non-commercial Use

ADDA content and services are for the use of individuals for non-commercial purposes only.  To use information gathered from ADDA commercially, or to reach ADDA members with commercial interest, is strictly prohibited under these Terms of Use, unless expressly authorized by the ADDA Board of Directors in advance and in writing.

Commercial use, which is strictly prohibited, includes, but it is not limited to:

• promotion or advertising of a company, a product, a service, or a website.
• self-promotion, including of a personal cause, digital content or a product or service.
• promotion of a research opportunity; and
• recruitment of participants for a study or a project.

Acceptable Use

You may only use ADDA properties for lawful purposes. You may only use ADDA properties in accordance with these Terms of Use, following community-specific guidelines if available, and all applicable laws, regulations, and codes of practice in the United States or in any other jurisdiction from where you access ADDA properties. Your contributions must:

• be accurate (where they state facts).
• be genuinely held (where they state opinions).
• not include any illegal content (defined below); and
• comply with applicable law in the United States and in any country from which they are posted.

Your participation in ADDA should be with respect, honesty, and in the spirit of supporting and learning from your fellow members. We ask that ADDA members respect the rights and views of other members who present their individual experiences, regardless of whether they agree, and that all disagreements are expressed considerately.

Illegal Content

You are prohibited from posting illegal content, in addition to the other items listed below. Illegal content should be immediately removed from the platform. You are also prohibited from posting:

• Advertisements/promotion of products and/or services. Any content that could be construed to be the advertising or promotion.
• Hate speech. Any hate speech, including but not limited to hate speech based on religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender, sexual orientation, or other identity factors.
• Other illegal content. This includes but is not limited to content related to topics such as: terrorism, child sexual abuse material, illegal drugs, and weapons.

Anyone responsible for breaching these prohibitions will be reported to the appropriate authorities and will have the full cooperation of ADDA in any investigation that follows.

You further agree that you are responsible for everything that you transmit to or in relation to ADDA and you specifically agree that your contributions and communications must not:

• contain any material that is obscene, offensive, potentially explicit, hateful, harmful, vulgar, obscene, bullying, libellous, abusive, duplicitous, threatening, inflammatory or defamatory of any person or otherwise includes objectionable material.
• advocate grooming behaviours or sexual exploitation including requests for contact on or off ADDA properties, requests for personal information, sexual solicitation, or comments.
• endeavor to persuade members into doing something that could be damaging or harmful; include unsafe content in relation to self-harm and suicide, including, but not limited to, explicit means or methods, graphic descriptions (including images), concrete plans, suicide notes.
• promote any discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age.
• promote false cures for any conditions or illnesses, anti-vaccination advice, manipulate contents to mislead users by distorting the truth of events, misinformation or post content that originates from disinformation campaigns.
• infringe any copyright, database right, trademark, or any other right of any other person.
• be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, stalk, troll, intimidate, exclude, or silence others, or cause purposeful harm or needless anxiety.
• be likely to harass, degrade, upset, shame, embarrass or alarm any other person.
• be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person.
• give the impression that they emanate from ADDA, if this is not the case.
• advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.
• use ADDA properties to engage in any commercial activities not approved in writing by ADDA.
• post any inaccurate or misleading information or opinions.
• publicly publish your own (non-ADDA) contact details or those of anyone else.
• register more than one membership for yourself or anyone else unless you are part of a moderation team.
• re-register or register a new membership or use another member’s account after you have been banned.
• input or transmit content that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files, or programs that are designed or intended to disrupt, damage, or limit the functioning of any software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment or to damage or obtain unauthorised access to any data or other information of any third party.
• input or transmit content that contains anything which could be used to determine or alter the architecture of ADDA properties, or could be used to decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer ADDA sites or systems.
• input or transmit anything that constitutes or contains any form of advertising or solicitation or that disrupts the normal flow of dialogue with an excessive amount of content (flooding attack) to any ADDA service or platform, or that otherwise negatively affects other users’ ability to use the ADDA platforms or that employs misleading email addresses, or forged headers or otherwise manipulated identifiers to disguise the origin of content.
• collect personal data about other members for commercial or unlawful purposes.
• use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to download data from ADDA properties – unless expressly permitted by ADDA; or
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to ADDA’s computer systems or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of, any ADDA properties.

This list is indicative only and not exhaustive.

What Happens If…

Content or behavior that is reported by a member is reviewed by ADDA leadership. They may edit, delete, or turn off replies to the content and may contact, restrict, warn, or evict the author. They may also decide that the author or content in question is not objectionable, and no action is required.

If issues are brought to ADDA’s attention, we will determine whether there has been a breach of the Terms of Use and what the appropriate course of action is. When a breach of these Terms of Use has occurred or inappropriate material has been posted, we will take such action as we deem appropriate, including, but not limited to, editing or removing any posting or material you have uploaded to ADDA’s properties; withdrawing your right to use ADDA properties; taking legal action against you; or disclosing such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary or mandated by law.

Objectionable Material

If you encounter or become aware of any objectionable or infringing or unlawful content available anywhere on or via an ADDA property, please immediately report such material (and the specific page on which it is found), or if you believe that you are the owner of the copyright or other rights in any material appearing on any ADDA property, or if you have any other complaint about ADDA content, or any content or other posted materials, please contact us via https://add.org/contact-adda/ or by email at info@add.org. Please include both the Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) for the non-complying content and the reasons you believe it does not comply. Please note that there may be adverse legal consequences if you make a false or bad faith allegation through this process.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, keep indemnified defend and hold harmless ADDA, their officers, directors, employees, agents, suppliers, and third-party partners from and against all liabilities, losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable legal fees, claims, demands and proceedings whatsoever, howsoever arising, resulting from or in connection with any violation by you of these Terms of Use, including, without limitation, the submission of any inaccurate or incorrect information.

Proprietary Rights

The entire contents of ADDA properties are owned or controlled by ADDA. The content is for your personal use only, and is not for re-distribution, transfer, assignment, or sublicense. ADDA content may not be copied, displayed, downloaded, distributed, or republished other than for non-commercial individual reference with all copyright or other proprietary notices retained, and thereafter may not be published, extracted, re-utilized, recopied, reproduced or otherwise redistributed. Nothing contained herein shall be construed as conferring by implication, estoppels or otherwise any licence or right under any patent or trademark of ADDA, or any third party.

Content and Limitation of Liability

All views, opinions, and knowledge expressed on ADDA properties by members are the sole opinions of the members themselves and are likely to relate to their own specific circumstances which may be different to yours. ADDA and the community partners we work with make no warranties or representations of any kind as to the accuracy, currency, completeness, reliability, operability, or legality of information or opinions contained or expressed on ADDA properties.

Commentary and other materials posted on ADDA properties are not intended as reliable advice. We and the community partners therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to ADDA properties, by any ADDA members, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

ADDA properties may include information and materials uploaded by other members of the site. This information and these materials have not been verified or approved by us. The views expressed by our members or other users of our site do not necessarily represent our views or values.

Further, ADDA properties are provided to members and Users on an “as is” and “as available” basis. You agree that access to and use of ADDA services and the content available on ADDA properties is at your own risk. To the fullest extent permitted by law, ADDA and any individual person connected to ADDA, and any party involved in creating, producing, or delivering ADDA content hereby exclude:

• All conditions, warranties and other terms that might otherwise be implied by statute, common law, or the law of equity; and
• Any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by you in connection with the use, inability to use, or that results from the use of ADDA properties or websites linked to ADDA properties, including, without limitation any liability for loss of income or revenue, loss of business, loss of profit, loss of data, loss of goodwill, wasted management or office time, and for any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable.

This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

We do not guarantee that ADDA properties, or any content thereon, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of ADDA’s properties for business and operational reasons. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access ADDA properties through your internet connection are aware of these Terms of Use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

Waiver

If we fail, at any time during the term of your use of ADDA properties, to insist upon strict performance of any of your obligations under these Terms of Use, or if we fail to exercise any of the rights or remedies to which we are entitled under these Terms of Use, this shall not constitute a waiver of such rights or remedies and shall not relieve you from compliance with such obligations.

No waiver by us of any of these Terms of Use shall be effective unless it is expressly stated to be a waiver and is communicated to you in writing in accordance with the methods specified above.

Severability

If any of these Terms of Use or any provisions of these Terms of Use are determined by any competent authority to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable to any extent, such term, condition, or provision will to that extent be severed from the remaining terms, conditions, and provisions, which will continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Entire Agreement

These Terms of Use and any document expressly referred to in them represent the entire agreement between us in relation to access to and your use of ADDA properties and supersede any prior agreement, understanding or arrangement between us, whether oral or in writing.

Law and Jurisdiction

These terms and conditions and the agreement between you and us will be governed by US law. Any dispute arising from, or related to, these terms and conditions or our agreement shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the United States of America.