Introduction

I am a big statistics nerd, so please bear with me while I throw a few numbers at you, because it all comes together at the end of this introduction, I promise. As of this year (2024), the internet is home to over one billion websites, and every three seconds, a new site is born. This makes it incredibly important for your organization to do everything in its power to make sure your site not only stands out amongst the ever-expanding sea of websites — but that it is also accessible to all of the people who might land on it. 

And your potential audience members very likely include people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). If you think that number is not worth consideration, think again. In 2020, more than 366 million adults worldwide had ADHD. That number was almost 35 million more than the entire population of the United States at that time. So this is a pretty big potential audience to miss out on with an inaccessible website.

Sources vary as to how many adults in just the US are living with ADHD. But even conservative estimates suggest there are around 10 million adults in America who have been diagnosed with this condition. 

This doesn’t account for the unknown number of undiagnosed — and untreated — adults. In general, it is estimated that between 75% and 80% of adults with ADHD do not know they have it. 

And then there are the children — 11.4% of the US population — about one third of whom will go on to have ADHD into adulthood. 

I think I’ve thrown enough numbers at you by now that it’s pretty clear: People with ADHD are a significant part of the population — and therefore a significant part of your potential audience. While most people think about accessibility in terms of ensuring that people with disabilities related to vision, hearing, and motor skills are able to access their websites, these same principles can — and should — be considered through other lenses as well.  

Here is what people with ADHD can teach us about web accessibility. 

Lesson 1: Create consistency

Speaking from both research and personal experience as an adult with ADHD, here are some things my fellow ADHDers and I1 can be spectacularly good at: 

  • Getting lost easily, both physically in the real world and virtually on websites with poorly designed navigation.
  • Becoming frustrated when something is not easy to find from one web page to another. Please do not make me retrace my steps to find the page I was on five minutes ago. I will probably get lost (see above).
  • Going off on tangents and forgetting why I was on your site to begin with. Right click > open link in new tab is my frenemy. 

What this means for your website: There are several WCAG 2.2 Success Criteria that can help create consistency on your site, making it much more ADHD-friendly in the process. These include:

SC 3.2.3: Consistent Navigation (Level AA):

Navigational mechanisms that are repeated on multiple Web pages within a set of Web pages occur in the same relative order each time they are repeated, unless a change is initiated by the user.

Consistent navigation not only provides a roadmap to keep me from getting lost and potentially missing out on important content on your site that I may not already know about — it also keeps me from becoming frustrated if I cannot find the content I came looking for in the first place.

SC 3.2.4: Consistent Identification (Level AA):

Components that have the same functionality within a set of Web pages are identified consistently.

If one page on your site has a search bar with a magnifying glass icon that simply says “search,” and another page has the same search bar but instead has a “find” button, that is going to create confusion for me. I’m going to wonder what the difference is between the two search bars — even though there is no difference. Consistency clears that confusion right up.

Lesson 2: Reduce distractions

This may come as a shock (note: sarcasm), but the “AD” part of ADHD stands for “attention deficit.” Now, some of us in the ADHD community take issue with the concept of having a deficit of attention. ADHD is a much more complex condition than just … “”Look, a squirrel!” But we can’t ignore the fact that yes, at times, we can get “distracted by unrelated thoughts or stimuli.”

What this means for your website: Providing options for visitors to reduce distractions on your site is a great way to make it more accessible and ADHD-friendly. Some of the WCAG 2.2 Success Criteria that can get you started include:

SC 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide (Level A):

For moving, blinking, scrolling, or auto-updating information, all of the following are true:

  • Moving, blinking, scrolling: For any moving, blinking or scrolling information that (1) starts automatically, (2) lasts more than five seconds, and (3) is presented in parallel with other content, there is a mechanism for the user to pause, stop, or hide it unless the movement, blinking, or scrolling is part of an activity where it is essential; and
  • Auto-updating: For any auto-updating information that (1) starts automatically and (2) is presented in parallel with other content, there is a mechanism for the user to pause, stop, or hide it or to control the frequency of the update unless the auto-updating is part of an activity where it is essential.

Giving me (or any other visitor) to your site, the ability to pause content actually serves multiple purposes:

  1. Reduce distractions: I don’t need to see that flashing banner at the top over and over. The message was received the first time it flashed at me. Let me pause it or hide it now so I can focus elsewhere.
  2. Absorb your site’s content: That beautiful carousel you hired that very expensive freelancer to develop for you has lots of important information in it — but it’s moving too fast for me to read it. Let me pause it and advance the images myself so that I can read each one at my own pace.

SC 1.4.2 Audio Control (Level A):

If any audio on a Web page plays automatically for more than 3 seconds, either a mechanism is available to pause or stop the audio, or a mechanism is available to control audio volume independently from the overall system volume level.

Many adults with ADHD struggle with sensory processing disorder, myself included. I get easily overwhelmed with too much sensory information. If a page opens up and I am immediately met with sound, I am going to feel like I am being pulled in a million directions. Simultaneously my instincts will tell me to find the source of the sound to see if I can mute it, find the volume control on my computer and mute it that way, and/or close the page out altogether to get rid of the sound. 

At the same time, I am going to be frozen trying to process these competing impulses — even though they all have the same goal. Eventually, I am somehow going to turn the sound off. Once my fight or flight response calms, if I have not yet exited off of the page, then comes the decision of whether to stay on it or not. How easy it was to gain control of the situation on the page itself could make all of the difference about whether someone with sensory processing disorder sticks around or bounces.  

Meeting this success criterion also helps screen reader users, as they may have difficulty hearing the content of your page being read out over the audio playing.

Lesson 3: Sustain attention

Let’s assume now you’ve got an easy-to-navigate, distraction-free website. It’s time to keep my attention. If my mind (or the mind of any person with ADHD) wanders off while we are on your website, please do not take it as a sign that your site is boring. 

The scientific and medical communities are still working to figure out the exact reason why we struggle with inattention (possibilities include genetics, differences in brain structure and function, and chemical imbalances in the brain). No matter the cause, our minds do not wander by choice. And many of us work very hard all of our lives to learn ways to cope and stay focused. 

What this means for your website: There are also simple steps you can make to your website to keep the attention of people with ADHD on it — and increase its overall accessibility in the process.

SC 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA):

The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, except for the following:

  • Large Text: Large-scale text and images of large-scale text have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1;
  • Incidental: Text or images of text that are part of an inactive user interface component that are pure decoration, that are not visible to anyone, or that are part of a picture that contains significant other visual content, have no contrast requirement.
  • Logotypes: Text that is part of a logo or brand name has no contrast requirement.

If you were around back then, think back to the Geocities and Angelfire sites of yore. 

Picture a page with a blaring neon green background and vivid blue text, your mouse’s cursor transformed into a magic wand with sparkles trailing behind it. You click your wand on a link and suddenly you find yourself on a page with a black background dotted with sparkling red falling stars, matching red text, and a dragon’s head where the wand previously was. Think about how hard it will be to absorb the content on those pages. That is what it is like for me to try to read a page today if the contrast is too low between the text and the background.

And of course, meeting this success criterion also helps people with low vision and those who are unable to see color.

SC 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) (Level A):

Captions are provided for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized media, except when the media is a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such.

I first started watching everything with the captions on during college, where I became close friends with a Deaf person.

I find that the captions help me stay focused and keep me from missing little details when multiple sounds are happening over one another, since I have a hard time differentiating noises because of my sensory processing issues. As with many self-discovered self-help methods, I soon found I was not alone in the ADHD community in using captions to help me stay focused and process information.

Captions can also help visitors to your site access video content when:

  • They don’t want to disturb the people around them
  • They are in public/noisy environments
  • The speaker in the video is difficult to understand
  • The content includes specialized or unfamiliar words
  • The video’s sound quality is not good    

Lesson 4: Provide instructions

You’ve done a spectacular job so far at making your site more accessible and ADHD-friendly. After looking around, I’ve decided I want to sign up. The question now becomes — how accessible is that process? Patience is not a strong suit of the ADHD brain. It’s more prone to a low threshold for frustration, which can mean we may become irritated more quickly than others. And as much as you would not want to lose us from your site at that point, trust me, we will regret having left once our brain stops buzzing. The important thing to remember is that our response is not because we have child-like tendencies. Our brains just work differently, similar to how a diabetic person’s pancreas works differently.

What this means for your website: When it comes to form fields, two easy ways to frustration-proof the process are by providing instructions in the first place and then by offering suggestions afterward if any errors are made. 

SC 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A):

Labels or instructions are provided when content requires user input.

This also benefits people with cognitive, learning, or language disabilities. A simple — but frustration-saving — example:

Put the format you would like the date to be entered in a form field. If you want it to be MM/YYYY, spell that out. Otherwise, January through September may end up being entered without the zero in the first digit — resulting in an error, wasted time, and frustration. Which brings us to the next criterion…

SC 3.3.3 Error Suggestion (Level AA):

If an input error is automatically detected and suggestions for correction are known, then the suggestions are provided to the user, unless it would jeopardize the security or purpose of the content.

In addition to helping people with ADHD, this can also benefit people with learning disabilities, people who are blind, have impaired vision, or impaired motion.

Going back to the date example, if the form field is for putting in the month and year I would like to set up my autoship service to be active through, let’s say I accidentally put the year as 2006 instead of 2026. Instead of just receiving a generic “error” at the top of the screen when I try to submit the form — or worse yet, having the page just refresh to a blank form, leaving me with no idea what has happened — a note below that specific form field might say “The year you entered has already passed. Please select a year after [current month and year].”. That tells me very clearly what I did wrong and what I need to do to make it right.

Lesson 5: Remove barriers

You’ve got an easy-to-navigate, distraction-free website that has maintained my attention and provided me with clear instructions on what I need to do. I’ve set up my account and found my way back to your site a few days later. Now all that’s left to do is remove those final barriers that could keep me from getting back to where I was. Because the fact of the matter is, whether I created my account ten minutes ago or ten years ago, the chances are the same as to whether I will remember my login details: an absolute crapshoot.

ADHD can impact short-term, long-term, and working memory. If those login details aren’t noted somewhere — and if that “somewhere” is not a place I remember the location of and login information for — the classic ADHD conundrum arises. Do I dig deep to really try to find that information, go through the effort of resetting the password, or decide to scrap the mission altogether?

What this means for your website: Fortunately, there are a couple of WCAG 2.2 Success Criteria that can remove these barriers and make your site more accessible, ADHD-friendly, and probably less frustrating for others who struggle to remember all of the different logins we are now expected to maintain.

SC 3.3.7 Redundant Entry (Level A):

Information previously entered or provided by or to the user that is required to be entered again in the same process is either:

  • auto-populated, or
  • available for the user to select.

Except when:

  • re-entering the information is essential,
  • the information is required to ensure the security of the content,
  • or previously entered information is no longer valid.

An easy example of this is allowing visitors to check a box if our delivery and billing addresses are the same, rather than having us fill out the same address twice — especially if the addresses have to be filled out on separate pages. I may not remember exactly how I listed my address from one page to the next. Did I write out “Street” or abbreviate it as “St”? Did I put “Apt 123” or “#123”? Will these inconsistencies even matter? SC 3.3.7 prevents this from being an issue.

SC 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) (Level AA):

A cognitive function test (such as remembering a password or solving a puzzle) is not required for any step in an authentication process unless that step provides at least one one of the following:

  • Alternative: Another authentication method that does not rely on a cognitive function test.
  • Mechanism: A mechanism is available to assist the user in completing the cognitive function test.
  • Object Recognition: The cognitive function test is to recognize objects.
  • Personal Content: The cognitive function test is to identify non-text content the user provided to the Web site.

There are a lot of details and nuances to this SC and how to meet it — more than I am able to get into in this post — but the single most helpful way to do it (in my opinion) would be to not block paste functionality. 

Let me copy my password from my password manager and paste it into the password field on your site. Then when you prompt me to copy the email verification code I just got, let me copy and paste that as well. 

Yes, my memory is in fact so bad that I could forget those five digits in the time it takes me to minimize the email tab and return to the login tab on your website. And by then the code has expired and I have to request a new one. Let’s make this simple (but still secure), and — most importantly — accessible for all of us.

Conclusion

I began writing this post in June with the intention of keeping the focus on the positive aspects of ADHD. As I write this conclusion now in August, I see that this is not the blog post I ended up writing. If I may, in true ADHD fashion, digress from the topic of web accessibility for a moment…

There is an abundance of research showing that people with ADHD live in a world where we face criticism and misunderstanding, and lack of acceptance. This all takes an incredible toll on our self-esteem. Some of us work our entire lives to prove that we are not just “enough” — that we are more than “capable” — that we can do great things if given the chance. 

Admittedly, the concept of certain characteristics of ADHD being considered “superpowers” is controversial in the ADHD community. (Why would we want to romanticize a condition that has made our lives so very, very difficult?) But I would argue that our ability to hyperfocus, our resilience, our creativity, our strong sense of empathy — these would be superpowers if we were just given a chance. This is the mental space from which I wanted to write this post.

Accessibility should not be an afterthought. It should not be looked at as a burden. And unless you are a bot, if you are reading this, you are a human being. I am assuming that you, like me (a fellow human being) have feelings. I think it is easy to “forget the human” in our discussions about web accessibility. And I think that is the point I was ultimately trying to come to. 

I look at websites I audit through the lens of multiple experiences: How would a person who cannot see feel if they were on this page? A person who cannot hear? Someone who navigates only using a keyboard? Someone like me, who has ADHD? It’s not just about checking boxes and meeting success criteria. It’s about making the world (wide web) a more accessible place for everyone. And to do that, sometimes we need to write posts like this to help others experience different types of accessibility needs. I hope this post has accomplished that.

  1. I do not claim to speak for all adults with ADHD in this post. Any “I” statements refer to my personal experiences, unless a linked source is provided as well. ↩︎