We built an accessible learning platform because the old ones weren’t built for us: A neurodivergent founder’s story

David and Angela are captured together, both wearing sunglasses and coordinating pink.

A story about learning, neurodiversity, and building an accessible learning platform. 

We are always thinking a lot about neurodiversity at Neve Learning, not just as a trending topic or a workplace inclusion box to tick, but as something real, something personal. And a recent conversation with Angela and David Prentner-Smith, the founder and CEO of Neve Learning, recently brought that home in a way that really stuck. 

What they shared with wasn’t theory. It was lived experience. It was the real impact of what happens when the world, especially the workplace learning world, isn’t designed for your brain. And it’s what led them to be so passionate about creating a learning platform that genuinely feels different, because it had to be. 

Angela spoke openly about what it’s like to live and work with Dyspraxia. As a child, she was labelled clumsy, the kind of child who cried in gym class and was constantly covered in bruises. Her reading skills were miles ahead, but her handwriting lagged behind. She expressed how she always felt like she was catching up in ways that no one else could quite understand. “I could do the thinking,” she said, “I just couldn’t do it the way school wanted me to.” 

That disconnect didn’t go away in adulthood. She talked about the stress of navigating new workspaces, not metaphorically, but literally, how it takes weeks to figure out the layout of a new office building, how spatial awareness challenges can make everyday tasks anxiety-inducing. Even team away days, something many employers see as light, fun, and harmless, became moments of panic. Being thrown into noisy, unfamiliar environments with group drumming and dancing activities might sound fun on paper. For Angela, it was isolating. Draining. She described the feeling of wanting to shrink back into the same scared, overwhelmed version of herself from school. “You can’t exactly raise your hand and say, ‘Actually, I find this terrifying.’ So you just carry it.” 

What really struck me was how much emotional labour goes into simply being in a workplace when you’re neurodivergent, especially when it feels like it was never built with you in mind.

David shared his own experience growing up with Dyslexia and how learning, especially in a traditional classroom setting, always felt like pushing uphill. He’d put in more effort than anyone, only to fall short by the system’s standards. “I thought I wasn’t smart,” he admitted. “But I was just learning differently, no one explained that to me.” 

For both Angela and David, these aren’t just personal anecdotes. They’re the foundation of a belief: that learning, at school, at work, anywhere, should be made for different brains, not just “adjusted” after the fact. Because those adjustments rarely go far enough. And more often than not, they come too late. What hit home most in those conversations was the clarity they both had about why they ended up building something like Neve Learning. It wasn’t just a business idea. It was a solution that didn’t exist when they needed it most. 

And it didn’t happen overnight. The concept evolved out of something more structured, a call for innovation, a problem to solve. But for Angela and David, that challenge wasn’t abstract. It was personal. They had lived it. So they leaned into what they knew, into what they’d experienced first hand. And now we have Neve Learning a platform built not just to include neurodivergent learners, but to include everyone. 

Here’s the truth: neurodiversity isn’t rare. Anywhere from 15% to 40% of the UK population is neurodivergent. That includes people with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, ADHD, Autism, OCD and more. These are not niche exceptions. These are our colleagues, our teams, our leaders. They’re already in our workplaces. The question is, are we designing systems that actually support them? 

The numbers suggest not. As an example, according to the Office for National Statistics Only 29% of autistic people who want to work are currently in employment. And in a recent CIPD survey, 83% of neurodivergent employees said they were afraid to disclose their diagnosis at work, worried it would harm their careers. That’s not inclusion. That’s survival mode. 

Angela said: “Learning should feel frictionless. Not exhausting.” And yet, traditional workplace learning is rarely designed that way. It’s often rigid, heavily text-based, and delivered in long sessions that assume every learner can focus, absorb, and engage in the same way. But for someone with working memory challenges, or processing differences, that kind of structure is a barrier. 

Because Neve is an accessible learning platform it flips that model. Instead of asking learners to adapt to the platform, the platform adapts to them. It offers short-form, bite-sized content. Flexible pacing. Different formats for different brains. Instead of treating accessibility as a feature, it’s in the foundation. 

When Angela went through her diagnostic process, the results showed what’s known as a “spiky profile.” Her verbal comprehension ranked in the top 10%. Her processing speed was in the bottom 1%. That contrast, that brilliance mixed with difficulty, is exactly what neurodiversity looks like. It’s not a weakness. It’s a difference. And it’s exactly the kind of difference that should be respected and supported by the tools we use to learn and grow. 

Angela and David didn’t set out to roll out just another platform. They set out to build the one they needed, an accessible learning platform that didn’t exist yet. And in doing so, they created something that so many others have been waiting for. 

Because neurodivergent people don’t need fixing. They don’t need sympathy. They need learning environments that meet them where they are, environments that recognise their strengths, accommodate their challenges, and make space for everyone to show up as they are. 

We talk a lot about the future of work. But the truth is, we can’t have a future of work without inclusive, neurodivergent-friendly learning at its core. 

Neurodiversity is already in your workplace. The only question is: are you ready to support it?