Hacking Your ADHD — Research Recap with Skye: Video Accessibility for ADHD and What the Science Says

Host: William Curb
Guest: Skye Waterson
Date: November 14, 2025

Episode Overview

In this Research Recap episode, William Curb teams up with ADHD coach and advocate Skye Waterson to explore recent science on how people with ADHD experience video content. Together, they dissect the qualitative paper, "Shifting the Focus: Exploring Video Accessibility Strategies and Challenges for People with ADHD," diving into its findings about video accessibility, practical strategies for both viewers and creators, and the nuanced challenges facing people with ADHD in a media-saturated world.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Study in Focus (02:13)

• Paper Methodology
  • Qualitative interviews with 20 self-identified ADHD individuals (not exclusively DSM-diagnosed; comorbidities like autism, anxiety, bipolar, and OCD were present).
  • Long-form interviews centered on personal experiences, not generalizable stats.
  • Diverse voices, with a notable tilt toward female and non-binary participants.

“It’s such an interesting paper. It’s 100% about individual experiences…not going to be generalizable to everybody.”
— Skye Waterson (02:13)

2. ADHD & Video: Common Frustrations (03:05 – 06:56)

• Key User Experiences
  • ADHD viewers are often frustrated by video content due to distraction, lack of engagement, and a tendency to fidget or lose track.
  • Many prefer speeding up playback to keep their attention anchored.
  • Redundant information (multimodal: captions, visuals, audio) is especially helpful.

"Almost everything I watch or listen to, I usually speed up…if I speed things up it gives me less of a chance to get distracted."
— William Curb (03:05)

• Content Preferences
  • Desire for more ways to digest content (chapters, summaries, text + visuals).
  • Frustration with having to re-watch or search for details within videos.

“They felt that it needed to be more engaging…they would fidget, get distracted, it would be hard for them to stay focused…”
— Skye Waterson (05:55)

3. Tactics that Help or Hinder ADHD Viewers (06:56 – 09:52)

• Helpful Strategies

  • Episode Structure: Intro, main content, recap of tips—helps reinforce retention.
  • Redundant Pathways: Visuals, on-screen text, and spoken word all support comprehension.
  • Captions: Universally helpful, but preferences vary (placement, readability).

• Problematic Trends

  • Overly dynamic or distracting visuals (such as simultaneous game footage) can either amuse or overwhelm.
  • Too static or monologic video formats often lose ADHD viewers rapidly.

“Could we have a picture of you explaining…the visual of that concept…text that’s not too distracting, chapter headings, summaries?”
— Skye Waterson (07:55)

4. The Platform Effect (09:05 – 11:02)

• Engagement Tricks and Platform Adaptations
  • Algorithms and UIs (like TikTok, YouTube’s added gameplay, or switched camera angles) employ constant novelty and movement to help capture fleeting attention.
  • This can have mixed effects—sometimes aiding focus, other times causing cognitive overload or even motion sickness.

"The ones that always get me is like…I have something showing an interesting story, but someone in Minecraft jumping in the background making me motion sick."
— William Curb (09:42)

5. Recommendations for Creators and Viewers (11:02 – 14:33)

• For Creators
  • Add captions and incorporate varied visuals.
  • Use conversational formats with multiple speakers for engagement.
  • Employ camera and scene changes, even subtly, to maintain interest.

“Having multiple people…so at least there's something interesting happening rather than just one person speaking.”
— Skye Waterson (14:33)

• For Viewers
  • Adjust playback speed, use fidgets, select the right environment (coffee shop, treadmill, etc).
  • Layer formats: listen and read along with a transcript or workbook for better engagement and absorption.

“If I really need to lock in, I'll probably go to a coffee shop…if I'm at my desk, it's really easy to check my emails.”
— Skye Waterson (11:54)

6. Individual Differences & Accessibility Challenges (15:20 – 17:34)

• Wide variance in user preferences: placement of captions, speed controls, visual supplements—what helps one person can frustrate another.
• Issues with auto-generated captions, inconsistencies between dubbed and subtitled content, and censorship through captioning algorithms (e.g., replacing words with emojis).

“The range of people being like, I really like this…and other people being like, that's the worst.”
— William Curb (15:20)
“Crappy AI transcription…that is brutal.”
— Skye Waterson (16:13)

7. Takeaways & Final Thoughts (18:02 – 19:39)

• Personalize Your Approach: ADHD brains are diverse; experiment with what works for you.
• Creators Should Prioritize Accessibility: Small changes make content more inclusive for attention-divergent audiences.
• Awareness and Advocacy: Knowing these struggles legitimizes seeking new strategies (e.g., speeding up playback) and advocating for accessible features.

"Sometimes people…I still talk to people who didn’t know about speeding up the video."
— Skye Waterson (18:47)
“I want to make stuff accessible so people actually watch the content.”
— William Curb (18:02)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Story on Attention & Modern Platforms
  “I know I've been doing the scrolling thing and think back to the last hour and I'm like, I don't remember any of the videos I just watched…how did I watch 37 videos between those two?”
  — William Curb (07:24)

• DIY Engagement
  “I'll count the seconds until the camera scene switches…it’s going to be like every 15 seconds. In reality it’s three, sometimes less…”
  — William Curb (13:10)

• On Too-Slow Playback
  “I forgot I had this at 1.5. And then I like put it back to normal. And I'm like, oh, this is painful to watch now.”
  — William Curb (19:07)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:13 — Introduction to the research paper and methodology
• 03:05 — ADHD viewers’ frustrations and coping strategies
• 05:55 — The role of redundant information and multi-modal learning
• 07:55 — Approaches to structuring accessible content
• 09:42 — Effects of platform design on ADHD attention
• 11:02 — Presenter vs. viewer strategies for engagement
• 14:33 — Scene/camera switching and conversational formats
• 15:20 — Individual preferences and the subjectivity of “accessibility”
• 18:02 — Takeaways for both viewers and creators

Conclusion

This Research Recap drives home how video content can be a double-edged sword for people with ADHD—a source of both engagement and frustration. Layers of redundancy (captions, visuals, summaries), rapid pace, and dynamic presentation make media more accessible, but there’s no universally “right” solution. For creators, accessibility isn’t just a technical extra—it’s core to helping neurodiverse audiences learn and participate. For viewers, the message is empowering: try new combinations, advocate for your needs, and remember—speed controls, fidgets, and transcripts aren’t “cheating,” they’re smart adaptations.

For full details or to read the paper, listeners can contact Skye Waterson via Unconventional Organization.