I’m autistic.
Normally I wouldn’t be quite so up-front about that, especially with people I don’t know. But for today, it’s important that you know that. Because April is Neurodiversity Awareness Month, and I wanted to share my feelings on the subject.
It’s not just me, of course. My husband has ADHD and my son displays traits of both ADHD and autism. My mother would be considered dyslexic if she was in school today, and there’s a fair amount more undiagnosed-but-definitely-neurospicy in my family. My close friends are also a wonderfully weird tapestry of neurodiversity. And, maybe unsurprisingly, a lot of my clients are neurodiverse too.
Again, this is important. Because neurodiverse people think in different ways than neurotypical people. We understand things in different ways, expect different things from the content we seek out, and need different things from the services we buy. Which means that, if businesses want to appeal to a neurodiverse audience, they need to be able to meet these needs. Now, you might not think that your business needs to community, or that neurodiverse people aren’t really part of your target demographic. But seeing as around 20% of the UK population is neurodiverse, you’re probably wrong there.
So, how do you write for neurodiverse audiences?
Understanding The Neurodiverse Brain
Crash course time! Neurodiversity is a naturally occurring variation in brain structure and chemistry that results in different ways of thinking and acting. It’s the reason we aren’t all robots who think and act the same. But while no two brains work exactly the same way, neurodiversity is essentially having a brain that works differently from the average person (otherwise known as ‘neurotypical’). The main things that come under this umbrella are ADHD, Autism (or ASD), Dyslexia and Dyspraxia, though there are others.
Diagnosed or not, people with these conditions experience the world in a different way. They think, learn, behave and perceive the world differently, and will have their own unique strengths and perspectives that come with that. Until relatively recently neurodiverse people, and particularly autistics, were subject to a lot of discrimination. The neurodiversity movement aims to support people who are neurodivergent and help them develop their strengths, while showing wider society that neurodiversity can be a very positive thing.
You might think that writing for this kind of person, especially if you don’t have any experience of these things yourself, might be difficult. The good news is that a lot of the best practices for writing content overlap with the strategies for accommodating neurodiverse audiences, so you’re probably halfway there already!
Writing For a Neurodiverse Audience
If I wrote a full instructional about writing for neurodiverse audiences I would be here all day. So let’s condense it down into some simple, easy-to-action points you can try right away.
Include a Strong Summary (TL;DR): Don’t hang about. Your writing should be hooky at the best of times, but with a neurodiverse audience, you need to font-load information fast. The best way to do this is to include a compelling and concise overview of the content that contains all of the key points up front. Bonus points if you then signpost to where the detail can be found in the article. Writing this kind of overview helps to capture the attention of an audience that doesn’t have the time or focus to digest all the details at once. This doesn’t have to be a big thing either – just tweak the way you write your introductions – you’ll be amazed at the difference!
Give options for learning more: If there’s one thing that many neurodiverse people like, it’s being able to find out more. Rabbit holes and deep dives into topics we find interesting are common, so give us an easy way to do that! Include hyperlinks to sources of more information, footnotes with your sources, or even explainer videos that we can watch. If there is ever a point in your content where you want to go into more detail but can’t, find the information and leave a signpost for it.
Split text up: Big long blocks of text are awful for anyone to read, but for neurodiverse individuals, they are a special type of hell. Particularly if they have ADHD and struggle with focus. So split it up in any way you can. Use headings, subheadings, bullet point lists, graphics, and images – there’s a whole host of ways you can do this easily. This makes the content feel less oppressive to the reader, so it’s easier to focus on and skim through.
Mix and match media: Similar to the above, try to incorporate different media types in your content. Some people like to read text, while others prefer to listen to audio clips or watch videos. Some will understand concepts better with a graphic, especially if they are dyslexic and struggle with reading. Plus, providing information in multiple formats increases the repetition of key points, which means it’s more likely to stick.
Use dyslexia-friendly fonts: This one is really specialist, but it makes all the difference! People with dyslexia have a lot of problems with reading, writing and spelling. They often jumble letters and words up, making it difficult to read sentences correctly. While doing things like writing in succinct sentences and using short words can help, the biggest thing you can do here is use a dyslexia-friendly font on your website. These fonts are designed to be easy to read for people with dyslexia. You can download some specific ones if you want, but more common dyslexia-friendly fonts include:
- Veranda
- Comic Sans (though my graphic designer will murder me for suggesting this)
- Calibri
- Arial
- Helvetica
You can also help dyslexics by avoiding using underlining and italics, use bold for examples, and choosing a larger font size (12-14).
To circle back to an earlier point – a big chunk of my clients fall somewhere on the neurodiverse spectrum. One of the big reasons for that is that I am on that spectrum myself, and am surrounded by people who are all part of it too. I have a deep understanding of working with neurodiverse people and the challenges they face, since I have either faced them myself or helped someone I love with them. That means clients can be honest with me about the things they need help with, and I can tailor my approach to suit their needs. I don’t believe anyone should have to bend to ‘my’ way of working. Rather, I want them to feel empowered by having great content for their business, and I support them in achieving that however they need.
Have I struck a chord? Drop me an email (please don’t call, I hate phone calls), and we can chat about exactly what you need.