OHT Mental Health: Rethinking ADHD: Innovation, Inclusion & Everyday Tech

What if ADHD traits were adaptive by evolutionary design, but mismatched by our environment?

Traits like distractibility and impulsivity - so often labelled as deficits - can also look like exploratory attention, rapid-response curiosity, and lateral problem-solving. In fast-moving innovation spaces, those qualities spark discovery, prototyping, and creative leaps. Yet in schools, offices, and “always-on” cultures that prize single-track focus, the same traits can feel out of place and misunderstood.

This open chat asks how technology and design can meet neurodivergent needs on purpose. From AI note-takers and attention-aware tools to platforms that shape how we seek support, we’ll explore where tech helps, where it harms, and how to build products that work with spiky cognitive profiles - not against them.

We’ll also dig into equity and access. Long waiting lists, postcode lotteries, paywalls, and patchy specialist availability push many people toward apps and digital platforms. What does that say about who gets help, who’s left out by design, and how we ensure that innovations are inclusive - across income, race, gender, disability, and geography?

Come as you are - with lived experience, curiosity, questions, or just your coffee.

What we’ll explore:

• Adaptive by design: reframing ADHD traits as innovation assets

• Tech in the loop: AI, platforms, wearables, and attention-support tools - what’s working, what’s not

• Inclusive by default: product and service design principles that honour neurodiversity

• Equity realities: access, bias, cost, data use, and power - who benefits and who gets blocked

• Community wisdom: practical strategies from people with ADHD, builders, clinicians, educators, and allies