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Jess Meredith champions digital inclusion and neurodiversity through design. Learn how her work is redesigning the world for everyone.
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Inclusion and accessibility are not the first things that come to mind when we think of technology. But what is a digital tool or interface worth if it can only be accessed by certain segments of the population? Aren’t we missing out by taking such a narrow approach?
These questions are at the heart of what Jess Meredith stands for. She is the co-founder of Differing Minds and a strong advocate for digital inclusion. With a background in educational psychology and UX design, Meredith works to ensure that all digital spaces are open and welcoming, no matter how an individual’s brain works. Her focus on making the digital world more inclusive for neurodivergent people is changing the way tech products are being designed, reviewed, and developed.
Read on as we delve deeper into what Jess Meredith does and the impact of her efforts in the digital space.
Jess Meredith is a leading voice in digital inclusion, as she strives to make the world more inclusive, one step at a time. Her journey started when she began as a UX designer at a major tech firm. During her work, she noticed that standard accessibility checks alone were not enough for people with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and other neurodivergent conditions to use the designed interfaces.
Being a neurodivergent adult herself, this got her thinking about how digital platforms can be redesigned to make them accessible for everyone. Also, this gap led her to co-found a company called Differing Minds, which can bring conversations about neurodiversity into product design from day one. Through this company, Meredith offers services like design audits, training, co-creation, awareness sessions, and more, to build truly inclusive digital products. You can learn more about Jess Meredith's biography here.
As an advocate for neuroinclusion, Jess Meredith has been making a strong and steady impact across organizations, schools, and even among individuals. She challenges existing social norms and encourages individuals to embrace the differences in individuals. She wants the world to see differences as strengths, rather than barriers. With such strong views, Meredith enables her audience to rethink what success and empowerment mean.
Jess Meredith Differing Minds is an organization dedicated to promoting neurodivergent inclusion. Through this organization, she has helped companies like Accenture and the NHS to implement neuroinclusion strategies. In her opinion, standard accessibility guidelines are the “lowest bar,” but they don’t necessarily make a tool accessible for everyone. This is why she collaborates with companies to develop more comprehensive digital inclusion strategies that take into account sensory needs, attentional variations, information processing styles, and the use of multiple formats. Such strategies can ensure that a vast majority of the population can comfortably use a digital platform.
Her approach towards emotional well-being, comprehension, trust, empathy, and inclusion is making the world a better place for neurodivergent individuals. Given the vast advancements in technology, its use is no longer optional for any individual. In such a digital-centric future world, providing equal opportunities for everyone is at the heart of her work.
Change does not happen overnight; it is often the result of multiple small steps taken over time. Below are some ways in which Jess Meredith is redesigning the world for everyone, starting with creating awareness about the differences.
Meredith’s approach is more hands-on, and this is what makes it so successful. She insists on involving neurodivergent individuals directly in the design process. This is a practical way to create inclusive products because these individuals can better show how to make a feature or a UX more usable.
Meredith involves these neurodivergent individuals through presearch sessions, usability workshops, and prototype reviews, where she allows them to test a user interface to better understand the problems they face. Subsequently, the roadblocks that these individuals faced are addressed, so the interface is more inclusive. Such a participatory approach also makes the entire process more effective and intuitive.
One of the most glaring gaps that Meredith found was a lack of awareness of the differences. People involved in the design and development of tech products were unable to understand the difficulties faced by neurodivergent individuals, and this is why training sessions are the first step of her process.
Through these sessions, she helps teams and organizations understand what neurodiversity and its variations mean from a product design perspective. Jess Meredith's neurodiversity sessions also provide frameworks for managing distractions, handling sensory requirements, and making any content clear and understandable to everyone. At the end of her sessions, product teams walk away with insights to include in the next release cycle.
As one of the leading neurodiversity speakers, Meredith communicates her complex ideas and insights with warmth and with words that resonate with everyone. She is well-known for delivering speeches at corporate events, keynote talks, and during internal strategy sessions to make inclusion a key element in every design and business process.
Going beyond speaking, she pens down her thoughts and approach on the Jess Meredith LinkedIn page. Followed by millions of people, her content reflects the intersection of psychology with design and ethics. Her thoughts and insights are also well-received by psychology speakers who work with neurodivergent individuals.
Using a combination of the above strategies, she champions digital inclusion and sparks meaningful change in any setting.
To conclude, Jess Meredith, through her workshops, speeches, and thought leadership content, ensures that inclusion is not just a box-ticking process, but rather something that’s built into every pixel of every digital tool. Her Differing Minds company strives to make digital inclusion a way of life.
For anyone who wants to hire Jess Meredith to inspire their employees or design inclusive digital products, contact Speaker Agency today.
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