When discussing accessibility, the first person that pops into the minds of people is probably a person in a wheelchair. Thinking about software accessibility, the next two types of disabilities might come into mind are blindness and deafness.

These are three types of disabilities most people commonly think of when talking about accessibility: blindness, deaf and hard of hearing and mobility impairments. And all three of them are important when optimizing software for accessibility, but there are other ones, and in this article will dive into one that is often forgotten: cognitive disability. There are many kinds of cognitive impairments, to mention some: Dyslexia (difficulty reading), AD(H)D (Attention Deficit Disorder), Autism Spectrum Disorder or Asperger’s. I got my Dyslexia diagnosis as a kid, and not long ago, a lot of things in my life started to make sense with another diagnosis: I have ADHD. And while many people might not see the connection between software accessibility and neurodiversity, I can tell you: there are things we, as UX Designers, can do to make the life for neurodivergent people, like myself, a lot easier. In this article I will focus on (adult) ADHD.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

How does ADHD manifest itself?

Please note: it’s hard to put a whole disability into a short article or even one or two paragraphs. Within these constraints, I can only give a brief, simplified summary that represents the core symptom on a very high level, so please keep in mind that ADHD is a lot more complicated than this.

There are three core symptoms of ADHD:

• Attention: difficulties to concentrate and forgetfulness. People with ADHD are especially easy to distract and are easily bored — it’s hard to focus on a task that doesn’t interest them.
• Impulsivity: difficulty to listen to others and holding a thought, interrupting others, problems handling unstructured situations that require reflection and thinking things through.
• Hyperactivity: problems to regulate physical activity like trouble sitting still but also racing thoughts/ a hyperactive mind.

These three symptoms can have many different faces and while some people with ADHD have symptoms from all three categories, others are just affected by one or two of them.

In my opinion, one of the most important steps in UX design is empathizing with the user, so I would definitely recommend you to read a few articles about (adult) ADHD — also if they aren’t related to software. My favorite one is “Living With Adult ADHD: Explained In Comics” by Ana Krajinovic. Also checkout my favorite ADHD Instagram accounts the_mini_adhd_coach and adhd_couple.

Additionally, it’s also worth mentioning that many people with ADHD (especially women) get diagnosed late in life or not at all. I got my diagnosis at 26, and this is not a rarity, as for example Diamond Sharp describes her journey in her article “My ADHD Diagnosis Took Nearly 30 Years”. Therefore, the number of unreported cases of people with ADHD is probably much higher than the official figures.

How might ADHD affect the usage of software?

Example: Forgetting to send a mail

To help you to empathize with adults with ADHD, I have a little software-related example for one of my biggest ADHD problems: forgetfulness. In retrospect it is actually a little funny for me, because I nearly failed to get an ADHD diagnosis because of my ADHD symptoms. But let’s start at the beginning.

It is extremely difficult to get an appointment for an ADHD diagnosis as an adult in Germany. When I finally got an appointment after two years of searching, only one step separated me from the appointment: I had to plan and confirm it. I received the appointment proposal via mail and of course I was really excited after all this time of searching. So I immediately wrote a reply to it. But I did not send it, because I got distracted by the other steps I had to take: check my private calendar and enter the appointment, do the same with my calendar at work, and I had to apply for leave for the day, because the appointment would last 3 hours. In the end, I never sent the mail because I got distracted beforehand and simply forgot. But since the appointment was in my calendar and the task didn’t appear on any one of my todo-lists or as a reminder, the task was completed for me. Additionally, I was 100% sure that the appointment would take place. But the completely written mail sat in the “drafts” folder of my email inbox for several days. And I finally found it by accident when I created and edited another draft. This was only one day before the actual diagnosis date and I got really distressed because of my error — but at least this story has a happy ending, because I was lucky that they hadn’t given the appointment to someone else.

I chose this example because it involves software (which actually often helps me to handle ADHD a lot better than without it). But in this case my email inbox could have been more helpful if it was considering my core symptom: forgetfulness. And here are a few suggestions:

• When I open the email program, it should tell me that it has automatically put the mail I started, when working with the program the last time, in the drafts.
• I can’t think of any scenarios where it makes sense to leave drafts for several weeks, so push notifications about drafts might make sense — at least as a feature that can be switched on and off.
• Additionally, the number that counts the drafts in the UI could be highlighted.

The screens show the Apple Mail app with the suggestions described above.

• Mails that have been answered get a small gray arrow to the left of the recipient in the Apple Mail app. This is a good start but easy to overlook, by a clearer distinction between answered and unanswered mails you could better see at first glance where something is “still open”. Of course not every email needs to be answered, but I definitely think this could be something worth ideating.