AI note-taking for ADHD and learning differences

Hedy started as a meeting tool for professionals. For students and adults with ADHD, auditory processing differences, or other learning differences, it has become something else.

If your brain doesn’t quite match the pace of a lecture, a meeting, or a doctor’s appointment, you already know the workaround. You try to listen, write, and process at the same time. You miss something. You spend the next ten minutes worrying about what you missed instead of catching the next thing. By the time the session ends, you have half a notebook of fragments and no real sense of what was said.

It isn’t a discipline problem. For people with ADHD or auditory processing differences, this isn’t about trying harder. The brain works how it works. The question is whether the room you’re sitting in respects that.

Most of the time, it doesn’t. Lectures move at the pace of the lecturer. Meetings move at the pace of whoever talks fastest. Medical appointments move at the pace of someone who has fifteen of them today.

The gap between needing help and getting it

Formal accommodations exist. They also take time. At many schools, the process from intake to approved support can take weeks or months. Even after approval, getting a note-taker assigned to every class isn’t guaranteed, and the quality varies. For adults outside school, support is often less structured. Workplace accommodations exist, but accessing them consistently can be hard, and many situations like medical appointments or family conversations fall outside any formal framework altogether.

That gap is where most learning differences quietly do their damage. Not in any one moment, but in the cumulative cost of always being slightly behind.

What changes when you stop trying to take notes by hand

Hedy listens, transcribes in real time, and processes what was said. While that happens, you can listen. You can ask a question. You can sit with an idea instead of trying to type it.

When the session ends, you have:

• A full transcript that you can search
• A clean summary of what was actually discussed
• Detailed notes that hold onto the substance
• A list of any next steps or commitments
• Highlighted moments you flagged during the session

If part of the conversation didn’t make sense, you can chat with Hedy about it afterward. Ask it to explain a concept the professor moved through too fast. Ask it to walk you back through what the doctor said, so you can follow up on anything that wasn’t clear. Ask it to compare what was said today with what was said in the same class three weeks ago, if you have that session saved too.

Features that map to specific needs

A few things in Hedy were built for professionals, and happen to address what students and adults with learning differences have asked us for over and over.

Real-time transcription in 30+ languages. Lectures, appointments, family conversations, meetings in a second language. Stop choosing between listening and capturing.

Lecture session type. Optimized for academic content. Captures structure, not just words. Recaps emphasize the kind of detail you need for studying.

Highlights. Tap a button when you hear something important and want to come back to it. Hedy saves the moment with context and a short AI-generated note explaining the idea.

Topics. Group sessions by course, by project, by ongoing medical situation. Ask questions that draw on the whole topic. “What did the professor say about cellular respiration across all my biology lectures this month?”

Post-Session Chat. Anything you didn’t catch, ask after. The conversation isn’t gone the moment it ended.

Apple Watch and multi-device. Start a session on your phone. Watch the live transcript on your Mac if reading along helps you process. Glance at your watch in a meeting where pulling out your phone would be awkward.

Local AI option. Hedy now has an opt-in mode that runs the entire AI pipeline on your own device. With that turned on and Cloud Sync off, nothing about your session leaves your machine.

What people have actually told us

For people with ADHD

One user wrote that Hedy is the first tool that let her stop dreading meetings. The relief came from knowing she could re-listen and review later, which freed her to participate now.

For patients in medical appointments

A user with a chronic illness uses Hedy at every medical appointment, in a language that isn’t her first. Pain makes thinking hard. Multilingual transcription and the ability to ask Hedy questions afterward replaced the experience of leaving a doctor’s office unsure what just happened.

For students with focus differences

A user recorded an entire semester of lectures. He used the chat feature to prepare for exams by asking questions across all sessions in a topic. He said Hedy gave him back the time he used to lose trying to take notes he couldn’t read later.

These weren’t the use cases we set out to build for. They’re the ones we keep hearing about.

What Hedy is not

Hedy isn’t a replacement for accommodations from your school or workplace, and it isn’t medical advice. It also isn’t designed for clinical use by your provider during appointments. Your doctor still does what your doctor does. Hedy is something you bring to the appointment for yourself, so you walk out understanding what was discussed.

If you’re working with a disability services office, mention Hedy to them too. Many users tell us they run it alongside formal accommodations, and others use it as a bridge while they wait for those accommodations to come through.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use Hedy as a formal accommodation through my school?

Hedy isn’t a replacement for accommodations from your disability services office. Many users run it alongside formal accommodations, others use it as a bridge while their accommodations are being processed. If your school has a formal note-taker assignment, captioning service, or extended-time policy, those still apply. Hedy is something you choose to use for yourself.

Does Hedy work for auditory processing differences?

Users with auditory processing differences have told us that Hedy’s combination of real-time transcription, the ability to re-read anything that didn’t land in the moment, and Post-Session Chat to ask follow-up questions is the relevant feature set. The Lecture and Business Meeting session types are the ones most often used in academic and work contexts.

Can I record lectures with Hedy?

Yes. The Lecture session type is built for academic content. It captures the structure of a lecture, generates a recap that emphasizes study-relevant detail, and lets you ask questions across an entire course using Topics. Always check your school’s policy on recording lectures, and let the instructor know if your school requires it.

Is Hedy private enough for medical appointments?

Speech recognition runs on-device by default, so the audio of your conversation never leaves your phone or laptop unless you turn on optional cloud features. Hedy also has an opt-in Local AI mode that runs the entire AI pipeline on your own device. With Local AI on and Cloud Sync off, no part of your session leaves the machine.

How is Hedy different from a regular transcription app?

A transcription tool gives you a wall of text. Hedy adds structure. Real-time AI suggestions during the session, summaries and detailed notes afterward, the ability to highlight key moments with one tap, Post-Session Chat to ask questions about what was said, and Topics to group related sessions across a semester or treatment plan.

A note on universal design

Most productivity tools were built for one kind of brain. The version of focus they assume is one that doesn’t drift, get tired, hyperfixate, or come back from a thought ten minutes later wondering what was missed.

Tools built with accommodations in mind tend to be better tools for everyone. Subtitles started as accessibility and became how most people watch TV. Curb cuts started as accessibility and became how anyone with a stroller or a suitcase gets across the street.

If Hedy works for you, that’s the whole point. We didn’t build it specifically for students who learn differently. It turns out that what works for someone trying to keep up with a fast-moving meeting also works for someone trying to keep up with a fast-moving lecture, or a fast-moving doctor, or a brain that doesn’t match the room.

You don’t have to wait for someone else to approve you needing this. Try Hedy free for your next class, appointment, or meeting.