i have a hack that my life skills teacher taught me! if you’re in a situation where you need to make eye contact but you can’t, stare at the person’s nose (like at the bottom of their nose) or like right above that space between their eyebrows. if that’s too uncomfortable, look at their hairline! to them it looks like you’re making eye contact, but it’s a lot better than real eye contact, at least for me!
This is exactly what I do! Here are some more things: My partner is also well aware that my lack of eye contact does not mean disinterest; but one thing that I ALSO do when talking to her is I will tap on her when she is talking, and I've done that with other close people. Otherwise, I can circle in that I often stare at their eyelashes in work meetings; and their mouth otherwise. Since I have bad hearing AND auditory processing problems; the mouth is my favorite because I learned how to mostly lip-read. Another associated thing could be learning ASL if you are prone to going non-verbal / have a hard time talking without moving your hands.
