Inspiration: "It's like not being able to walk and being given a wheelchair!"

James first got Inspiration at Salford University as part of his Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) package and said, ‘it was incredibly helpful for his dyslexia and undiagnosed ADHD at the time’. James was diagnosed at a young age with Semantic Pragmatic Disorder (now considered a form of autism), closely followed by receiving a dyslexia and general anxiety disorder diagnosis, and more recently, ADHD.

He believes passionately that early intervention at primary school, and throughout secondary school, would make such a difference to children, not just in terms of their academic studies but also their general wellbeing.

What are the challenges that Inspiration helps with?

“It’s the software I treasure the most; it’s by far the best and allows me to get my thoughts down in a cohesive way. It works very well with ADHD! I am currently doing an autism awareness assessment module for my course, and I would really struggle without Inspiration. My documents used to get very messy, but I don’t have to worry about that with Inspiration because it’s not linear or up and down. You see in written work by people with ADHD that it can be very stop/start and there can be a lot of brackets and footnotes, but with Inspiration, that isn’t the case.”

James continued: “It’s a challenge I have verbally and in written word; I get very stressed out, then I feel I have a smaller vocabulary, and then worry I’m not making sense. And when you worry about that, you stop and start and lose your point. It helps me organise my thoughts, and I don’t feel my ideas have got lost, and I can always go back to them when I want. It’s simple because it’s not linear and it’s all spread out and colour coded.”

Did you find Inspiration easy to learn how to use?

“I found it very easy to learn and pick up. There are plenty of helpful training sessions, but it was so self-explanatory that I just rushed straight into using the software instead.”

What are the types of tasks you use Inspiration for?

“I have relied on it for writing assessments and assignments, and for training and note compiling. I have also used it for revision, and it’s made me so much more confident.” James added, “Working with primary school children, I can see that the earlier you intervene with this stuff, the better. It helps with awareness and acceptance; kids feel more comfortable and are treated less differently as a result. Software like Inspiration would help kids at secondary school with revision and studying, and they would be less likely to struggle with anxiety.”

What are the features you find the most useful?

“I love the colour coding; I tend to go for a pale blue background, which must be a sensory and anxiety thing. I don’t use dark or deep colours because then I’d focus too much on the colour and not the text. It’s also amazing to be able to transfer my maps to a Word document, it’s very satisfying. Not being able to do that is very stressful and time-consuming.”

Can you see yourself using Inspiration in the future?

“Yes! 100%, 1000%, 10,000%! I love it! It gives me so much more confidence. And everything is so much more manageable.”