Craig Abbott shares his coping strategies for ADHD and why accessibility impacts everyone

Craig Abbott, Design Manager at Elastic®, was diagnosed with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) three years ago. It turns out he already had coping mechanisms he used every day to be productive. 

“Now that I’m diagnosed, it makes sense,” he says. 

While Craig doesn’t have a lot of the hyperactivity traits, he finds himself fidgeting and uses a variety of tools to stay focused. Craig uses a paper notebook and bullet journaling, fidget toys, a ‘jail’ for his phone, and the Pomodoro technique for time management. 

“I use loads of coping strategies,” he says. “I just kind of assumed it was normal.”

Craig worked in a full-time accessibility role before joining Elastic. The organization was in-office and had an open floor plan. Upon returning to the office full-time after the pandemic, Craig said it was really evident how distracting the office environment was for him. 

“I struggled to get stuff done,” he says. “I would tune into other conversations, hear noises and other distractions. I don’t know if I struggled that much before [the pandemic], but I got used to doing stuff at home.”

At Elastic, Craig is able to work from home thanks to the company’s distributed by design set up. He is no longer working in a dedicated accessibility role, but is co-lead of the Accessibles Employee Resource Group and believes that the basics of accessibility should always be adhered to. 

For designers, that means using the right color contrasts, giving developers alternative text for icons or images, and making sure interactions are not reliant on using a mouse.

“Accessibility doesn’t always need to be perfect right away. It can be iterative,” he says. “But there is a fear of getting it wrong, so people don’t try at all. One of the things that I’ve found and tried to help people with is, ‘It’s better to do something than nothing.’ There is a lot of stuff we can do day to day to make things better.” 

Having worked in accessibility and as a neurodivergent person, there is a personal element to it, Craig says. 

“Everyone targets the majority, so people in the margins remain there,” he says. “For me, there needs to be a real drive to include those people around the edges to make it better for everyone. I want to get people to see the impact of not doing the accessibility work.”

And there is a lot that goes with accessibility, Craig says. 

“For example, using clear and simple language and making links obvious. This can help people who are neurodivergent, people like me who have focus issues, or people with dyslexia. There’s a misconception that accessibility is only for a disability. But we’ve probably all used captions on a video when it wasn’t appropriate to play it at volume.”

“We need to see accessibility as a basic user need and something that often improves the entire user experience for everybody,” he says. “That’s what I'd like to get people thinking about. If we do make things accessible, it makes it better for everyone.”

Craig also notes that there are different types of impairments that can affect people at different times. For example, a temporary disability could be when someone is in an arm-sling for a specific period of time, so they need accommodations. A situational disability could be if someone can’t hear because the environment is noisy, so they may rely more on text features, like subtitles. 

“It’s this idea that if the features are there, everyone will need them,” Craig says. “Statistically, one in two of us will develop a disability at some point in our lives, so when we target the people in the margins, the design ends up better for everyone, including our future selves.”

To make things more accessible at work, leaders and companies can implement flexible working hours and structured meetings.

“Make sure meetings have agendas and action items,” Craig says. “For neurodivergent people, not having structure can stress us out.”

Craig also recommends creating a team charter that outlines ways of working and communication styles. That way, everyone can chime in with how they best like to communicate (whether it’s video calls, Slack messages, emails, etc.), and team members can respect that. 

Even though Craig is no longer working full-time in accessibility, he’s still active in the industry and wants to continue to make things better.

“Accessibility is definitely getting better, people are starting to try and do things,” he says. “It’s important that people make an effort. There needs to be a cultural shift where people do a little bit often, instead of trying once to nail it down.” 

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