Neurodiversity and Making Research More Accessible: A Junior Consultant's Perspective
Alongside my role as a Junior Consultant at ClearView I study Interdisciplinary Problems & Methods at university. I have enjoyed learning new things and connecting the dots between ideas. Growing up I’ve always had a zest for life and I often found school boring. The usual feedback from teachers was he’s bright but complacent. This made me think that my lack of concentration was probably me just being a bit lazy, as that’s the messages I’d always received growing up. I was particularly struggling for a few months during a module, so I decided to seek help and through that process I was able to find out I had ADHD.
Getting diagnosed in my mid-twenties was a weird experience as I felt a sense of relief for my shortcomings but also slightly sad. The sadness came from the fact that I had gone through childhood and adolescence thinking that I was just being naughty or lazy. The actual truth was I was just disengaged and I thought differently from those around me.
Getting diagnosed with ADHD was helpful. Whilst there is also a part of me that isn’t so fond of the label that comes with it. I think that we are all inherently different. According to an article by Harvard, “there is no one "right" way of thinking, learning, and behaving”. Why is it that we need to be categorised as neurodivergent or neurotypical? Is anyone actually neurotypical? We can all interpret data, situations and experiences differently. So the conclusion I come to is that if we are all different then we are all on a spectrum of neurodiversity. This way of looking at it means that we can be less critical of ourselves, or the differences in other people and instead begin to question how they can communicate more simply and effectively; whilst allowing creativity to be expressed through our work and productivity.
As a Junior Consultant I am required to do a lot of reading and research. I used to feel like I wasn’t doing it the ‘right way.’ The ‘normal way’. Then I learned to individualise my approach. I began to work backwards from the goals I wanted to achieve and create the tasks necessary to get there.
At ClearView we have been considering people who process information differently. Here are three things we’ve done to make our processes more accessible:
Plain Language Summaries: We produce easy read versions of our reports avoiding jargon and a lot of plain scientific language written in a way that is easy for the everyday person to understand. This can help make research more accessible and relevant to the general population, and not just other researchers.
Visualisation: Words aren’t everything. During some of our exploration labs or co-creation sessions we have live animators join who will create animation artwork of our conversions.
Creative engagement: We use Miro boards for some co-creation sessions to allow us to engage our participants virtually in a more collaborative and creative way. This is an alternative way for people to get involved. Text-to-speech readers for those who need to also hear what they read and AirTable which is a much more creative way to store data as opposed to your bog standard spreadsheet.
I also think that a supportive work environment makes a difference. At ClearView flexibility and autonomy is valued. You won’t find the words on the walls in the office or on a mission statement, but it is lived out. Working at a place that accepts people’s differences allows me to feel comfortable being different.