I am a UI/UX Designer with ADHD and Dyslexia, and yes, I cannot spell it without spell check.
I’ve known I was dyslexic since high school, I knew letters and numbers got mixed up in my head, words too. But I didn’t realize that being neurodivergent also impacted the way I perceived the world. Most teachers liked me because when I was engaged I was really invested in the topic, and when I wasn’t I would often daydream. I often knew the source material but I really struggled with homework, I didn’t do it, all hints toward ADHD but we’ll get into that later. I got teased quite a bit for the questions I’d ask or the way I’d process information, I knew I was smarter than I sounded, but it didn’t stop me from feeling dumb sometimes. You see, I had to work at problems backward, and I wouldn’t always comprehend the smallest bits of information until I understood the bigger picture.
But I also knew academics weren’t for me, too boring. I was an artist. I was creative. I belonged in art school. And so, without even understanding what Graphic Design is, I set off to the Art Institute of Philadelphia and I knew that I was on the right path. My first step in my career was as a Founding Designer at a financial institution where I was reminded to design for “old eyes”. I would joke that I “made charts look pretty for a living” but what I didn’t realize was that it was really my first step in User Experience Design and also in Accessibility. From there I moved on into the world of digital design as a consultant where I would be able to grow in creating accessible experiences.
It was one particular client that was extremely influential for me, in more ways than one, and I had the pleasure of working directly with their ADA team. The ability to work directly with disabled teammates was pivotal for me and I knew that I needed to be doing more to create inclusive experiences. So when 2020 hit and we were all in a period of stress and reflection, I made it my mission to learn more, and I immersed myself in the world of Accessibility and it became my favorite topic.
It was during one conference that I heard the speaker talk about invisible disabilities that it finally dawned on me, that’s me, I’m dyslexic. And I turned my attention towards neurodivergence and soon discovered that I was ADHD too. Suddenly so much of my life made sense to me. My struggles with time management, executive functioning skills, odd behaviors, my organized chaos, all these things that I felt shameful for or would wrap up in a package of being “creative” just made sense. And then I also started to understand the ways in which I’ve compensated for my uniqueness over the years. The ways in which I would adapt to my surroundings in order to fit into this neurotypical world, and even, the ways in which I was comfortable standing out, all seemed so clear now.
Now, thinking back on my career, I’m able to identify the ways in which I’ve been designing for cognitive disabilities all along. I feel my neurodivergence makes me keenly aware of pain points in a user’s journey and I’m able to empathize with frustrations that may not be vocalized. It’s difficult for me to comprehend processes that are overly complicated, and so I strive to simply them in my strategy and designs. I even play around with the UX writing to be sure it is intuitive for the user and aim to avoid walls of text whenever possible. Not to mention my dyslexia has always directed my preference for font types.
And that got me wondering, how do other designers accommodate for their disabilities through their design?
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