Designing for Neurodiversity

Over the past 20 years, accessibility standards have evolved to greatly improve accessibility for people with different visual, hearing, and motor abilities. Accessibility standards and testing are now a common component in large organizational best practices and product lifecycles.

However, best practices for cognitive accessibility – effective approaches for meeting the needs of people with neurodivergent brain functioning – are less understood. Why? Perhaps it is because conditions like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and other learning disabilities are often “invisible” to others. Maybe it’s the challenge of trying to generalize “best practices” given the wide range of individual experiences and preferences even within a single diagnosis or label.

Understanding what neurodiversity is and how natural variations in brain processing affect our user audiences is an opportunity to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in our workplaces and communities. And a side benefit? Designing for cognitive differences helps to improve usability for other audiences as well. Join us as we explore how neurodiversity affects the way users perceive and use content and apps, and how aspects like minimalism, user control, structure, and hints help.