We have already explored the diverse needs of our users and considered a few examples of users with disabilities. But there are also those users who we may not know about.

Not everyone will declare their disabilities. Take a moment to reflect on why you think that might be.

Why might users not declare their disabilities?

Declaring a disability is a personal choice. People may feel that they will be treated differently if they share this information, they may worry that any funding they receive will be taken away, or they may have previous experiences that put them off sharing these details.

Also, not everyone knows that they have a disability or accessibility needs. Read through this story to explore what we mean by this.

Shona and her son's ADHD

Shona’s son has recently started school. His class teacher has asked if he might have ADHD. She gives Shona some information to find out more about ADHD.

The more Shona reads about ADHD, the more she agrees with her son’s teacher and thinks he may have ADHD. The symptoms and descriptions match his behaviours and preferences.

Shona persues an ADHD diagnosis for her son, taking him to consultations and screening sessions. She learns that ADHD is inherited and starts to see links between her son’s behaviours and her own.

With more research, Shona understands the differences between ADHD as it represents in young boys and how it manifests in adult women.

She speaks to her doctor about this. Eventually, her son is diagnosed with ADHD, aged 5, and she is diagnosed with it too, aged 35.

This diagnosis explains many of the struggles she has had in her life so far, without ever realising that it was because of her neurodivergence.

Benefits for all

So, by making sites and services accessible, we aren’t just helping our users with declared disabilities. We are helping these other groups of people as well.