Source type: News / lived-experience project coverage
Publication: The Malta Independent
Date: 27 September 2026
Topic: ADHD women, lived experience, participatory research, public education, neurodiversity
What this source describes
Framed in Focus: ADHD Women is a University of Malta and ADHD Malta project combining photography, lived experience, professional knowledge, and public participation. Ten women with ADHD used unedited disposable-camera photographs to represent aspects of their internal experience and everyday lives.
The exhibition opened at Studio C, Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta on 25 September 2026 and runs through 1 November 2026.
Main themes worth preserving
- Women’s ADHD experiences are being represented directly through their own images and accounts rather than only through clinical description.
- The project explicitly responds to historical gender gaps in ADHD research.
- It treats lived experience as a form of knowledge that can sit alongside clinical and academic expertise.
- Public participation is built into the project through visitor feedback, workshops, discussion, and a Human Library event.
- The project includes a public discussion called Bridging the gap: Clinical insights and lived experience of ADHD, bringing together adult ADHD specialist Dr Dora Wynchank, psychiatrists, and women with lived ADHD experience.
- Policymakers, academics, press, schools, and other stakeholders are being invited into the project so lived experience can inform wider conversations about ADHD, neurodiversity, inclusion, services, and policy.
- The exhibition also includes creative and stimming-related workshops, suggesting an affirming approach that includes self-expression and regulation rather than focusing only on deficits.
Useful framing for Flourish / ADHD women content
This source supports the broader idea that ADHD women’s experiences can be missed when understanding comes only from diagnostic descriptions or externally observed behavior. First-person accounts can reveal effort, masking, internal experience, sensory needs, emotional load, and other aspects that may not be visible from the outside.
It is also a useful example of participatory work: people with ADHD are not only being studied or spoken about; they are contributing to how ADHD is represented and discussed.
Important limitation
This newspaper article describes an exhibition and research partnership. It is not itself a research study and should not be used as evidence for prevalence, causation, treatment effectiveness, or other scientific claims. Its value is primarily as a current example of lived-experience-informed ADHD work, participatory research, public education, and neurodiversity-focused engagement.
Potential future uses
- ADHD women and lived experience
- Why women’s internal ADHD experience is easy to miss
- Participatory research and neurodivergent voices
- Lived experience as a complement to clinical expertise
- Masking and the gap between visible functioning and internal effort
- Public education and reducing ADHD stigma
- Examples of neurodiversity-affirming community projects
Source supplied by Kristen for wiki ingestion on 28 September 2026.