A Claude skill that turns an AI assistant into a cognitive accessibility tool for inattentive ADHD. It changes how information arrives and what gets recommended. Grounded in Barkley, Brown, and the clinical literature on adult ADHD.
Traditional accessibility adapts the container: font size, contrast, layout. Cognitive accessibility has to adapt the content itself, which is why nobody had solved it before LLMs. This is one attempt at what that looks like in practice, tuned for my own brain and given away for anyone who wants to fork it.
The gap nobody filled.
Web accessibility has spent thirty years building tools for people who can’t see screens, hear audio, or use a mouse. It built almost nothing for people whose brains need information shaped differently to absorb it at all. ADHD, autism, dyslexia, TBI, cognitive fatigue. Estimates put neurodivergent people around 15 to 20 percent of the population.
The W3C’s Cognitive Accessibility Task Force has been publishing guidance for years. The eight COGA objectives read like a description of what a well-configured LLM already does. Nobody has connected those dots yet.
This skill is one attempt. The full writeup of the thinking behind it lives on the blog.
Four clinical principles.
The skill rests on published work from a handful of clinicians and researchers, mostly Barkley and Brown. It is behavior-based, not lifestyle-influencer advice. Every recommendation traces back to one of these four ideas.
ADHD is a disorder of performance, not knowledge.
The person already knows what to do. The gap is between knowing and doing. So the skill focuses on externalizing executive function instead of demanding more willpower from a system that structurally cannot supply it.
Russell A. Barkley · VCU Medical CenterInterest, urgency, novelty, and competition activate executive function.
Importance alone does not. The ADHD brain runs on a different ignition system. Recommendations account for what actually turns the key, not what ought to in a neurotypical model.
Thomas E. Brown · USC Keck School of MedicineEvery system has a novelty half-life.
What was working in January will go stale by March. Recommendations build flexibility into frameworks and plan for rotation. The structure survives even when the specific tools get abandoned.
Applied ADHD coaching practiceAssume competence. Skip the cheerleading.
No “you’ve got this.” No condescension. The skill treats the user as a capable adult with a neurological difference, matches their register, and spares them the emotional labor of managing a chipper AI.
Tone calibrationWhat’s in the repo.
Claude reads SKILL.md on every trigger. Six reference files load on demand, based on what the conversation is about. Click a file to expand its scope.
When it activates.
The skill loads aggressively. If any of these show up in a conversation, it fires and reshapes the response. A cognitive accessibility tool that only works when you remember to ask for it is not actually an accessibility tool, so the bias is toward over-triggering.
Three steps.
No build step, no npm install, no Docker. It’s a folder of markdown files.
Clone or download the repo.
Pull it from GitHub. Nothing compiles.
Zip the folder.
Keep the references/ subfolder intact.
Upload to Claude.
Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload. Ten seconds. The skill self-registers.
git clone https://github.com/brkhzn/adhd-operating-system.git
Fork it. Don’t ask.
The skill is tuned for inattentive-presenting ADHD with an IT and writing bent. That’s a starting point, not a prescription. The obvious dials:
-
Tool stack
Swap Amazing Marvin, Obsidian, Sunsama, YNAB for whatever you actually run. Referenced in
project-management.mdandcommunication.md. -
Medication
Written around a once-daily stimulant routine. If yours differs, rewrite the timing section in
daily-systems.md. -
Tone
The banned-phrase list at the bottom of
SKILL.mdreflects my preferences. Your mileage on “you’ve got this” may vary. -
Theme days
Infrastructure Monday, security Tuesday, writing Wednesday is my rotation. Replace with yours in
project-management.md.
Shoulders it stands on.
Nothing here is original research. The skill synthesizes published work from clinicians, researchers, and coaches who have spent careers on adult ADHD.
- Russell A. Barkley, PhD Clinical Professor of Psychiatry (retired), Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center Taking Charge of Adult ADHD (Guilford Press). Executive Functions: What They Are, How They Work, and Why They Evolved.
- Thomas E. Brown, PhD Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC; Director, Brown Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders Smart but Stuck. A New Understanding of ADHD in Children and Adults.
- John J. Ratey, MD Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Driven to Distraction (with Edward Hallowell). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.
- Edward M. Hallowell, MD Former Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Founder, The Hallowell ADHD Centers Driven to Distraction. ADHD 2.0 (with John Ratey).
- Steven A. Safren, PhD, ABPP Professor of Psychology, University of Miami Mastering Your Adult ADHD: A Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Program (Oxford University Press).
- Holly A. White, PhD Research Faculty, University of Michigan; formerly Eckerd College Work on creativity and divergent thinking in adults with ADHD.
- Melissa Orlov Founder, ADHDmarriage.com; Marriage Consultant The ADHD Effect on Marriage. The Couple’s Guide to Thriving with ADHD.
- Jeff Copper, MBA, PCC, PCAC Founder, DIG Coaching Practice; Host, Attention Talk Radio ADHD coaching practice and attention research.
- Brendan Mahan, MEd, MS ADHD Coach; Host, ADHD Essentials Podcast The Wall of Awful model for ADHD emotional blocks.
- Jessica McCabe Creator, How to ADHD (YouTube and Penguin Random House) How to ADHD: An Insider’s Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It).
- Cal Newport, PhD Associate Professor of Computer Science, Georgetown University Deep Work. A World Without Email. Slow Productivity.
- Tiago Forte Founder, Forte Labs Building a Second Brain. The PARA Method.
Built for myself. Sharing in case it saves someone else a few months of iteration.