“Building back differently” for neurodiversity

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about “building back better”. When you look at this phrase, its alliteration is no doubt there so that we don’t forget it, but it also makes it disconcerting - every block of the sentence carries the same starting point (the letter ‘B’). 

Change, therefore, doesn’t seem to be part of the “build back better” agenda. After all, “better” is one step on the way to the superlative of “best”. With this in mind, is the trajectory of this building which we are all eager to see going to take off from the very same spot?

Large - larger - largest. 

Shiny - shinier - shiniest. 

Cold - colder - coldest.

All that “better” suggests is an improvement of the same, and for people with neurological differences, this is a cause for concern in numerous circumstances. Currently, mainstream education, hiring processes and even the digital world are largely failing neurodivergent individuals despite them being estimated to form 15% of the population.

Although awareness of neurodiversity might be increasing, actual inclusivity (or a willingness to become so) is presently lacking on the whole in each of these arenas. For example:

• Griffin and Pollak’s research article, Student experiences of neurodiversity in higher education: insights from the BRAINHE project, concluded that neurodivergent students experienced frustration and negative experiences with both peers and teachers
• 73% of neurodivergent job-seekers do not disclose their neurodivergence during selection processes to avoid discrimination
• 70% of UK websites are inaccessible

The prospect of more of the same does not sound ideal. Just like how you would hope that not even the most ambitious of architects would consider adding extra tiers to the Tower of Pisa, you may also hope that for the future of neuro-inclusion in our current systems, the infrastructures won’t be bolstered. Instead, for any building to take place, laying different foundations seems far more beneficial.

However, like with the 848 year old Tower of Pisa, issues which hinder the flourishing of neurodiversity date back many years to a time when our society was only just beginning to take shape. As Sir Ken Robinson once said, our current education system’s conception was driven by an economic imperative of the Industrial Revolution, and ever since then it has had an underlying current which divides people upon academic ability. In comparison, the term ‘neurodiversity’, which describes differences in cognitive functioning, was only coined in 1997 by Judy Singer. 

Inevitably, some (who are very likely to have gone through the universal education system) might be inclined to perceive change as too big of a challenge when it comes to neuro-inclusion.

Nevertheless, as a species we like to pride ourselves on our adaptability; it is a quality which we often herald for our success but are equally quick to forget about when you consider that our systems tend to mainly work for the majority in society. Only in the last year has adaptability undoubtedly become revered once more despite every piece of nature which surrounds us perpetually serving as an example of its necessary value. With adaptability being restored to its throne, isn’t it about time that we not only allow our instincts to heed to it for our benefit but also embrace it in active decisions we make in our society? Admitting to being wrong is brave, but more importantly, it also allows the first step for amelioration. 

In some small patches across our world we are already seeing these changes being taken. For instance, in March 2020 the Learning About Neurodiversity at School project was launched by the University of Edinburgh. Thanks to this initiative, both teachers and pupils will discover the differences in how people learn in the hope that more varied methods of learning will be adopted, and a reduction in anti-social and discriminatory behaviour will occur. 

Taking a slightly different approach, Will Wheeler, the Director of The Dyselxic Evolution, is in the process of forming the world’s first Neurodiversity Career Institute/University with the vision of designing adult education specially for neurodivergent people. Similarly, in the world of work over the last few years, large organisations such as J.P. Morgan, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and SAP have all begun recruiting neurodivergent talent and reaping the benefits for doing so alongside their existing employees. 

Some might say that initiatives such as these are bold considering the shifts they could initiate to both long-standing forms of education and work, but in reality, they make perfect sense. Confidence, creativity, productivity, health and inclusion will all be increased at the expense of discrimination, low self-esteem and exclusion.

However, when considering our society, we must now also acknowledge the digital extension to it. After all, since the 1990s, the internet’s ubiquity has been unstoppable. To attempt to put its growth into perspective, in a group of researchers in 2007 discovered that 94% of available information was digital. This means that if it was stored on CD-ROMs, they would stack the distance of 280,707.5 miles - which is further than the space between Earth and the moon. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that no similar studies have since been attempted, probably because the new data would be even more incomprehensible!

Whilst the internet is young in relation to other established corners of our society, such as education (making it  easier to adapt “on paper”), its size and rapid expansion means that it can be difficult to enforce change upon. Maybe this is best conveyed by questioning whether “on paper” is now an archaic term because what isn’t “on a screen” nowadays? No longer does the internet merely consist of static info, but our lives in real-time exist within it too. Friendships, education, events, work, and so much more have all been subsumed into the digital landscape. 

Some companies such as KreativeInc. Agency are attempting to make the UK digitally inclusive by reforming web accessibility to improve the lives of those who have a disability or impairment. Along with benefitting a large number of individuals, this mission also holds commercial incentives. It is important to consider that the annual spending power of disabled people and their families and friends is worth ￡249bn to the UK economy, as a BBC report in 2017 discovered.

However, whilst this is a necessary development, the digital realm isn’t solely for storing information on webpages. Hope can be found with regards to this in the simple fact that youthful tech (for the first time) has assumed ascendency over more established authorities such as education and work. Now that our society has spilled into the digital world, the playing field has become tech’s backyard - and they know where the bumps and ditches are.

Some innovative tech companies have recognised that an extremely rare and privileged opportunity has therefore presented itself to them - they have the chance to make a dent in what is often perceived as the impregnable status quos of education and work. As a result, they are welcoming new visitors into their domain in the hope that they won’t just be tourists, but rather settlers who embrace new ways of doing things having witnessed their benefits.

Ayoa is one of these companies hoping to reform both education and the workplace so that they become neuro-inclusive by design. Their principal route for achieving this is by providing a neuro-inclusive, collaborative, digital workspace which is British Dyslexia Association Assured and accredited by the UK government's Disabled Students’ Allowance scheme. It offers educators and employers a resolution to their remote learning and working woes by enabling people to collaborate together in real-time no matter where they are - whilst also crucially ensuring that this is achieved in a neuro-inclusive way. 

This feat is made possible thanks to Ayoa's interchangeable viewing styles for mind maps and task boards, which allows users to view content in a format which is best for them without impacting others. It also includes a host of other neuro-inclusive features such as the team pulse dashboard and the idea bank.

Ayoa’s versatility means that unlimited actions can be exercised within it. These include:

• Revision
• Hiring processes
• Planning and writing essays or reports
• Holding meetings and doing the preparation for them
• Event planning
• Project management

and so much more. This reflects its principle of being neuro-inclusive which embraces all types of brains and the creativity which comes from them.

Whilst the initiatives supporting neurodiversity in education, the workplace and the digital realm are great to see, they remain scattered rather than collective. Culture however, is a collective movement and the bedrock for society. With “building back” therefore being the contemporary call to arms, what it will amount to ultimately depends on its foundations which will be determined by culture.

As one human attribute recovers - adaptability - there is hope that with it another will be redeemed too - diversity. If these two qualities can usurp our current culture which holds no remnants of neuro-inclusion, a new chapter with a difference could dawn. For the sake of neurodiversity, hopefully a wordy prolongment of our current chapter will not happen, resulting in us not “building back better” but “building back differently”.

Interested in discovering more about how Ayoa helps support neurodiversity? Find out more on our neurodiversity page about what it means to be neuro-inclusive and the benefits that Ayoa can bring to neurodivergent individuals around the world.  

Ready to discover how Ayoa could help you? Send me a message and I’ll be delighted to share with you its digital reasonable adjustments and neuro-inclusive principles.