Invisible Women in a Neurodiverse World — Designing for Neurodiversity
At the Royal College of Art, when I had to choose a theme for my area of inquiry, I was absolutely certain of opting for Justice and Equality. In my practice I have been designing for care because I aspire to support people who are entangled in the rut of living in a society that is built for the able bodied.
Women and Neurodiversity
I worked in a group of four for this research project and we brought in our individual expertise in Service and Experience Design, Textile Design, Visual Communication and Interior Design to shed light on how neurodiversity disproportionately affects young girls and thus bring awareness to the marginalised communities of our society and tell their stories.
The Neurodiversity Gender Divide
Neurodiversity can be an invisible barrier between accomplishment and women in society. Highlighting and making others aware of neurodiversity so women can be their own person without apology. Gives them the ability to seek out coping skills and awareness to understand their neurodiversity better and the ways they can they can overcome difficulties that may arise relating to it — to give them a better chance in a life that is not always geared to the neurodiverse.
Neurodiversity in women is widely under recognised and under diagnosed, which is a huge concern. If we exclude disabled women from the conversation, we’re missing out a huge chunk of the female population. Women are under pressure to conform in a male-dominated neurotypical space.
Project Plan and Timeline
Research
Our initial research involved looking at the existing diagnosis tests for ADHD in women and the lack of support and misdiagnosis of ADHD in them. We also conducted a survey of women who were diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood to understand the impact it had on their early years. We ideated, bearing in mind that our intervention targeted a sensitive audience — children. We had to be mindful of the potential to cause them mental stress by diagnosing them with a condition, which was underlined during the Ethics Review. To navigate this delicate situation, we sought the advice of a psychologist from Imperial College who supported us in finding ways to address the issue.
Documentation — Advice from medical professional (Dr. Marianna Kapsetaki Medical Doctor. Imperial College London, Phd Cognitive Neuroscience)
Our Approach
We soon realized that young girls were highly underserved when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. Diagnosis for young girls is extremely complex and may take a long time for a proper diagnostic test to come out. This led us to analyse our intended output. The feedback we received from our tutor, the complexity of medically creating a diagnostic test for young girls and the concerns we encountered in the Ethics Review led us to designing an intervention that is mindful and supportive of young girls with ADHD without necessarily providing them with a diagnosis.
Thus we began exploring how we could be of support without an official diagnosis. This led us to understand how a lack of diagnosis and subsequent care impacts their mental health. Many of them experience anxiety, stress, and low self-esteem, which can feel intolerable by early adulthood. Cognitive behavioural therapy can be helpful, but we wanted to explore additional ways to alleviate their mental health.
Proposed Intervention
Our proposed intervention is a sensorially stimulating ADHD-friendly booth that provides comfort and support to young girls who may or may not have ADHD. Since there is no clear diagnosis for ADHD in young girls, we wanted to create a concept that helps boost mental health, self-perception, and ultimately provide a comforting space for them.
Our goal is to situate the booth in the real world, making it transportable and easily installable so that a wide range of places can have access to it. This would give every girl the chance of diagnosis and understanding. We hypothesized that the booth would be located in schools, airports, and hospitals.
Learnings
When I look back and reflect upon our design process and the way our intervention developed, I believe that we had a lot of hits but also a few misses. For instance, we were praised for our initiative to pursue a topic that was rooted in practicality and strong research. However in the quest to design an intervention for ADHD diagnosis in young girls,we realised that we were trying to work towards something that is yet lagging in terms of medical research so it was not our place to envision an outcome.
But we did an interesting pivot of addressing their mental health and thus providing an intervention that supports and comforts not only young girls with ADHD but also helps the ones without a diagnosis. We also alleviated the potential concern of the risk of over-diagnosis and potentially labeling young girls with ADHD who may not actually have the condition and we considered how the intervention might impact their self-perception and potential mental health outcomes if they are given a diagnosis that may not be accurate. Thus I believe the greatest success of our concept lies in how we developed a concept that is agnostic of the diagnosis process.
Reflections
An extremely important aspect of this project has been reflecting on the value and social responsibilities that I have as a designer. We wanted to create a space that would be safe and comforting for young girls, while also being environmentally friendly. This required us to think critically about our choices of materials and design. Designing for a sensitive audience like children on the cusp of a diagnosis made me realise the potential and impact my work could have. I understood my responsibility to create designs that are user-centered, sustainable, inclusive, ethical, socially responsible, and innovative. By adhering to these values and social responsibilities, I strive to have a positive impact on society and contribute to a better world.
Working with our tutor and fellow members in this theme has greatly influenced how I evolve as a design practitioner. The workshops and tutorial sessions where all the teams displayed their work helped me see the different ways of visualising what an intervention to wicked problems would look like. Personally I come from a background in technology and user experience where the emphasis has been on what value we could create for our potential audience. I had a brilliant conversation with my tutor about design provocation and this helped me move beyond looking at highly practical solutions. I have now understood the importance of critical thinking, careful examination and creative explorations of interventions.
I have been absolutely fortunate with the team I worked on this project with. Our work has been rooted in collaboration, sharing of strong values and ethics on designing for the vulnerable and most importantly, a burning desire to ignite a much needed intervention for the under-served sections of the society. This not only helped us to come up with innovative ideas but also allowed us to learn from each other and develop skills in communication, negotiation and compromise. We belonged to different disciplines and each team member brought their unique skills and perspective to the project, which helped to create a well-rounded and thoughtful response. As a Service Design student, this was a very interesting experience because I had the opportunity to tie together the different aspects of our concept which came from our backgrounds and envision it in its entirety. It allowed me to look at my practice from the lens of a contributor as well as a professional who streamlines complexity.
The feedback we received for our concept helps us to look back at the incredible journey we had in this project. We were told that our proposed intervention of creating an ADHD-friendly booth to provide comfort and support for young girls is a positive step towards addressing the mental health impact of this issue. It’s important to continue to consult with experts in the field, such as psychologists, to ensure that the intervention is ethical, effective, and appropriately targeted towards the needs of the young girls we are trying to help. Additionally, it has been suggested to us to consider partnering with existing organizations or resources that provide support for individuals with ADHD and their families, such as advocacy groups or mental health clinics. This can help ensure that our intervention is well-informed and aligned with existing efforts to address this issue.
Throughout the project, we engaged with peer, academic, and industry networks that helped us build a concept that is grounded in strong research and practicality. While our peers were absolutely helpful in providing us with feedback that shaped our process, the academic support we received from our tutor helped us to stay on track with our project, develop critical examination skills and adhere to our brief and timeline. This helped us to identify the specific issue we wanted to address and develop a response that was meaningful, effective and multidisciplinary. Through these activities, I was able to develop a deeper understanding of justice, equality, and misinformation. I learned about the different ways in which these concepts intersect and impact various communities around the world.
Next Steps
As the project has come close to conclusion, I have begun thinking about future steps that we could take to continue evolving it in our capacity. A couple of ideas for the same include pilot testing of our intervention to see how it works in the real world and identify any potential issues and make necessary adjustments, launching an awareness campaign to educate the public on the gender divide in the diagnosis of neurodiverse conditions, specifically ADHD in young girls which can promote early diagnosis and treatment, advocacy for policy changes and reforms that address the gender divide in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in young girls, and considering to develop long-term support programs for young girls diagnosed with ADHD or who may have the condition that can help provide ongoing support and resources to improve their mental health and well-being.
Thus I would conclude by saying that this project has been an incredible experience in my time at the RCA.
