Chapter 10: What If This Was Built for Me?
By donna bedford · Read online
There’s a question I couldn’t stop asking once I got diagnosed with ADHD. It came quietly, sometimes mid-meeting, sometimes in the middle of writing, sometimes while just trying to use a basic app:
“What if this had been built for me?”
Not just made “accessible.” Not just legally compliant. Not shoved into a one-size-fits-all checkbox version of inclusion.
What if this system – this product, this interface, this workplace, this world – had been designed with my brain in mind?
What if the friction wasn’t my fault?
What if the failure to engage wasn’t a personal shortcoming?
What if the problem wasn’t me?
It was the system.
10.1 The Quiet Revolution
Another Face of the Recognition Shift
That’s what this book is about.
Not just SEO.
Not just AI.
Not even just neurodiversity.
It’s about what happens when we stop designing for the average – and start designing for the actual.
It’s about shifting the question from “Does this work?” to “Who does this work for?”
And recognizing that, for decades, most of what we’ve built online has made some people work harder, just to be understood.
Not because they were incapable. But because they were never fully included.
This is the quiet revolution:
A shift toward systems that listen better.
Respond better. Recognize better.
It’s not loud. But it changes everything.
10.2 If This Had Been Built for Me…
If this had been built for me, search wouldn’t invalidate – it would be inclusive.
Inclusive Design includes more open opportunities:
Search rewards curiosity and is open to ambiguity
Linearity is not assumed. There are loops, ladders and pauses
Forms would have breathing room
Text would guide instead of test
Error messages would coach, not scold
Loyalty programs wouldn’t rely on habit and would reward and respect energy management
If this had been built for inclusivity, teams wouldn’t just ask “Can everyone use it?” They’d ask, “Does this leave anyone behind?”
And maybe, just maybe – If this has been built for me… I wouldn’t have spent years thinking I was lazy, distracted, or just bad at life. Maybe I would’ve known sooner that my brain wasn’t broken. The tools were.
10.3 Building Backward with a New Lens
Imagine for a moment that you’re not optimizing for average.
You’re optimizing for edge use cases. For nonlinear thinking. For high empathy, high pattern-seeking, emotionally attuned, behavior-driven brains.
What changes?
You stop assuming clarity. You start designing for cognitive wayfinding
You stop writing content to sell. You start writing to support
You stop measuring bounce rate as a failure. You start asking what kind of friction caused it
You stop building for the person with five tabs. You start building for the person who’s opened fifteen – because they’re trying to make sense of the same question from fifteen angles
You stop thinking “accessibility” means contrast ratios. You start understanding that emotional accessibility is the future.
10.4 You’re Not Broken, You’re Proof
To every reader who has ever:
Felt overwhelmed by an app
Left a site mid-scroll because the flashing banners made your heart race
Gotten lost in a form that never explained itself
Stayed quiet in a room that moved too fast
I want you to hear this:
You’re not the exception. You’re the evidence:
- Evidence that we need better: systems, writing, research, and teams
- Evidence that this industry can’t move forward by dragging old ideas of what “normal” looks like
You are the reason inclusive design exists – not an exception.
And if you’ve made it through this book; you already know something most teams don’t:
There’s more data in bounce rate than in form fills
There’s more insight in confusion than in conversion
There’s more opportunity in neurodivergence than we’ve ever measured
10.5 A Letter to My Former Self
What I Wish I’d Known.
If I could talk to the version of me from ten years ago:
I wouldn’t start with the diagnosis.
I’d start with the framing.
I’d say:
You’re not failing. You’re filtering.
That form wasn’t built for you.
That meeting cadence wasn’t built for you.
That five-step funnel wasn’t built for you.
I’d tell myself:
The way you instinctively rebuild systems to fit your brain.
That’s not sabotage. That’s strategy.
You were never meant to mold yourself around broken systems.
You were meant to change them.
10.6 This Isn’t a Book. It’s a Beginning.
If this book made you feel less alone – thank you for reading.
If it gave you new tools – thank you for applying them.
If it made you ask better questions – thank you for leading with curiosity.