I was drawn to reading the paper: On the spectrum within art and design academic practice:
As someone with dyslexia and ADHD, my journey through education has been shaped by constant tension between creativity and traditional academic expectations. Reading, writing, and structuring essays have always been struggles, but designing, problem-solving, and creating have been my strengths. The paper Art & Design and Neurological Difference highlights how neurodivergent students bring unique ways of thinking to creative fields—but also how current education systems often fail to accommodate these strengths.
Fashion design is an academic discipline, but not in the traditional sense. It requires research, critical thinking, and problem-solving, but these happen through sketchbooks, hands-on experimentation, and material manipulation rather than essays. Yet, the academic system still places heavy emphasis on written work, making it difficult for neurodivergent students to succeed in ways that reflect their actual abilities.
The paper discusses how many neurodivergent students develop workarounds—using visual thinking, hands-on approaches, and alternative methods to express their ideas. This resonates with my experience. I have always learned best through doing, whether it’s draping fabric on a stand or working through concepts in a sketchbook. These methods are not just “practical”—they are deeply intellectual and should be recognised as valid forms of academic engagement.
Despite this, many fashion courses still measure academic success through essays and written reflections, sidelining the ways in which neurodivergent students excel. The challenge is not that we lack academic ability but that the system defines “academic” too narrowly. The question should not be How can neurodivergent students fit into this system? but rather, How can education evolve to recognise diverse ways of thinking and learning?
One approach could be to shift the emphasis away from written work as the primary form of assessment. What if research-based sketchbooks, process videos, or verbal presentations carried the same academic weight as essays? What if critical thinking was evaluated through creative problem-solving rather than written analysis alone? These changes would not lower academic rigour but rather redefine it in a more inclusive way.
Neurodiversity is not a deficit—it is a different way of engaging with the world. Fashion education should embrace this by valuing alternative learning and assessment methods, ensuring that students are recognised for their intelligence and creativity, not just their ability to write.
In my previous role teaching in outreach, I would meet so many young people at secondary schools who really struggled with the writing aspect of A level Art and Design subjects, they were extremely creative but didn’t understand, and weren’t encouraged, to work with visual annotation rather than written annotation for their work.
By shifting how we define academic excellence in fashion and more broadly art and design we can create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment—one where neurodivergent students are not just accommodated but truly understood and valued, this should start lower down education.
Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal
On the spectrum within art and design academic practice
Luca M.Damiani