<!-- Source: Lumotia Master Brief — Appendix A6: Voice User Interfaces -->

## A6. Voice User Interfaces as Executive Bypasses

**Core finding:** Voice interfaces are vastly superior to GUIs for populations with ADHD, cognitive impairment, or traumatic brain injuries. Yet ADHD was mentioned in 47.6% of neurodiverse community posts about voice assistants whilst academic literature "greatly lacks any information" on how ADHD individuals use them (Esquivel et al. 2024).

- Voice activation bypasses the visual and mechanical bottlenecks of GUI interaction (typing, mouse navigation, visual scanning, sequential menu navigation) — all of which require sustained top-down executive functioning.
- Vocalisation is approximately **3x faster** than manual keyboard entry.
- VUI design constraints for cognitive accessibility: engineered pauses between phrases for auditory processing time, options presented in text before requiring selection to avoid overloading verbal working memory.
- Current voice assistants impose their own setup complexity — Lumotia must minimise this to near-zero.

**Implication for Lumotia:** Voice is not a convenience feature — it is the primary accessibility mechanism. The 3x speed advantage means voice capture preserves working memory traces that would decay during typing. VUI implementation must include processing pauses and visual confirmation of transcribed text before action. The supply-demand gap (47.6% community interest vs. near-zero academic research) represents a significant opportunity for Lumotia to generate its own evidence through ethically designed measurement.
