How can you teach Service Design to people with Dyslexia and ADHD?

How can you teach Service Design to people with Dyslexia and ADHD?

In short:

  1. Make shorter sessions with multiple types of activities (presentations, round table, doing, etc.)

  2. Offer multiple media for the learning material (video, audio, slides, text)

  1. Share tools that support with Dyslexia (OpenDyslexic Chrome Extension, Notebook LM , Speechify)


I've never thought about making my courses better for people who have Dyslexia or ADHD, until a Service Design learner gave me feedback on how to adapt my course content to help people who have them. Based on her feedback here is how I've adapted the training and so far it seems to work well:

Make shorter sessions with multiple types of activities.

That's something that I was already doing, but that the student told me worked really well for her. Usually in my Service Design classes where I use the "Learning by teaching" approach, the activities are rather short and very different:

  • Going through learning material: 1h

  • Learning loops (3 in one day)

    • Learner presentation (15 minutes)

    • Round table where everyone shares their own experience (10 minutes)

    • Doing activity (20 minutes)

    • Round table where everyone shares what they learned by doing (10 minutes)

Offer multiple media for the learning material

Reading long texts can be challenging for people with Dyslexia or ADHD, so now in my training material I try to always have a mix of different material:

  • Video or audio

  • Slides

  • Text

Share tools that support with Dyslexia

There are many apps that help people with Dyslexia, here a few that I have recommended in the past and that are pretty nice.

  • OpenDyslexic Chrome Extension (free): An extension that changes the font of every text in your browser to a font that is optimized for people with Dyslexia.

  • Google Notebook LM (free): An app that turns any text material in a podcast that you can listen to.

  • Speechify (paid): An app that turns any written text into an audio version. I use this myself when I have to read long academic texts in German which makes it much easier for me to stay focused as I'll both see the text and hear it.

Q&A Teaching Service Design

Buy nowLearn more
  • How can you learn about students creatively?
  • Why I don't use the term Service Designer when I teach Service Design?

Learning by teaching

  • How to build on the knowledge of the Service Design learners?
  • How to improve a learning by teaching session?
  • How can I make students participate more in the learning experience?
  • How to engage students in the co-creation of courses

Flipped classroom model for Service Design

  • Why I'm doing very little frontal teaching?
  • How can we help learners synthesize what they read at home?

Service Design curriculum

  • What's a good onboarding kit for Service Design Master learners?
  • What’s the first thing to teach about Service Design?
  • How do I teach design methods?
  • How to help learners discover what makes a good service?
  • How does a minimal blueprinting for teaching look like ?
  • What are the pieces of information I repeat in each class?
  • What is the design tool young professionals and learners forget to use ?
  • How do I use stations in a prototyping course?

Inclusive Service Design teaching

  • How can you teach Service Design to people with Dyslexia and ADHD?
  • How to adapt class workshops to different speeds and needs?

Improving the teaching

  • How do I continuously improve my on-site Service Design teaching?

No slides Service Design Teaching

  • How to give a course with only illustrations?
  • What is the Service Design Macarena dance move?
  • How do I show the plan of the day in my Service Design classes?

Grading Service Design work

  • How do I separate and combine the coach and jury role?
  • How do I grade documents on the Remarkable tablet?

Corporate Service Design training

  • Why Do I Recommend Multi-Day Trainings in a Hotel?
  • What Types of Hotels Do I Like for My Design Trainings?

Service Design and repetition

  • What are some micro-trainings we can do throughout Service Design education?
  • What is the mantra I repeat in every service Design course?

Teaching Swiss Service Design

  • Why am I a dick with time when I teach Service Design in Switzerland?

Inspirations for teaching Service Design

  • What inspirations do I steal from Sunday church services for my Service Design classes?