Neuroinclusivity and Employment: Redefining one month into an everyday movement of inclusion, acceptance, and autonomy

Neuroinclusivity and Employment:

For the Neurodivergent Community, employment has long been a barrier for many seeking to lead a successful and meaningful life. Many people from this community have faced obstacles or bumps when trying to obtain and keep employment in any career of their choice. This has historically been due to misunderstandings and stigmas surrounding workplace preferences, needs, and ways of thinking. Many of these beliefs, opinions, and practices are still in place today. While we have made progress towards more inclusive and welcoming employment for all in the Neurodivergent Community, there is still more work to do. It is an ongoing movement centered around education, teamwork, advocacy, leadership, and networking. Creating inclusive practices around hiring and stable employment requires understanding and boundary setting that lets all sides of the team know what works best for any Neurodivergent Individual. These discussions should always be held on a regular basis. The more we can create open and understanding dialog, the more we can design inclusive and accepting employment settings and areas that speak to any Neurodivergent Individual’s needs and identity.

Neuroinclusivity and Inclusive Hiring Practices:

The door to employment as we all know always starts with the hiring practice. It is that long and winding road towards starting your dream future and life that you have been working towards your whole life. For those of us in the Neurodivergent Community, the process is almost always long and tedious. Many of us find ourselves filling out applications or doing interviews where the settings or environment are not always designed to accommodate and guide us. We are left to try and figure out systems and ideas that are designed for anyone who does not identify as Neurodivergent. This often leaves us either not getting interviews or getting hired for any job that we know would be a great opportunity.

When it comes to interviews being conducted, settings designed for most people may not always be inclusive for Neurodivergent individuals. That includes settings with lots of lights or background noise from extra talking by multiple people. These environments or meeting places can be overstimulating or overloading for many of us in the Neurodivergent Community. This can cause any Neurodivergent Individual to not perform their best in any interview. At the same time, poor performance is coupled with misunderstandings and stigmas from potential managers and employers about Neurodivergent Individuals needs and environmental preferences.

Anyone who identifies as Neurodivergent would always benefit from practices or systems that speak to their learning and processing needs. That includes having interviews being held in areas that are quiet, peaceful, and calm. Just as importantly, any workplace interview should include resources that make it accessible for anyone with any learning preference or style to easily understand the information given to them during one. For example, resources such as written guides, questions being given out beforehand, or directions being given out slowly on paper can work well for many people who identify as Neurodivergent. As KeyAssets Kentucky points out: “Rethink Hiring and Interview Practices

Traditional interviews often emphasize social skills, quick thinking, and eye contact, which can create barriers for neurodivergent candidates. Consider alternative hiring methods like:

• Skill-based assessments instead of rapid Q&A interviews
• Work trials or job auditions to showcase abilities in action
• Providing interview questions in advance to allow preparation”

These alternative hiring methods can make hiring more inclusive and accessible for Neurodivergent Individuals. They follow new and innovative approaches that anyone who is Autistic or Neurodivergent could understand and use to be successful just as anyone else in interviews. These methods or solutions can be ones that any workplace should implement to create more diverse and broad pools of talent and workers. People who identify as Neurodivergent can be just as prepared for any job interview and would be just as likely to succeed at one. Any method or strategy like this can and should always be considered by any company or organization when hiring Neurodivergent individuals.

Neuroinclusivity and Inclusive Workplace Cultures:

For anyone, having a safe and welcoming culture creates a space where everyone can thrive and succeed. That includes anyone who identifies as Neurodivergent. Those of us in the Neurodiverse Universe always work best when working in environments that are quiet, peaceful, and largely free of extra distractions. Workplaces can and should always be designed to welcome and serve Neurodivergent minds and their complexities in broad ways.

At the same time, creating workplace cultures that are centered around acceptance and safety can always do wonders for any Neurodivergent Individual. This can include creating programs or initiatives centered around building acceptance and understanding for Neurodivergent Minds, designing rooms for people to go to have sensory breaks, designing offices for people that are quiet and free of distractions, and having Neurodivergent People work in offices that are in quiet parts of buildings. Just as importantly, workplace cultures can and should always include openness to understanding Neurodivergent People’s needs and preferences. This includes any accommodation requests that employees make to employers after first being hired.

Additionally, workplace culture should include rules and policies that speak to Neurodivergent Minds. Such rules and policies could include language that allows Neurodivergent Employees to have a voice in any needed changes to them to ensure inclusion and acceptance at all levels. As Washington Autism Alliance carefully lists below: “Challenges in the Workplace

Autistic individuals often face specific challenges in traditional work environments:

• Social Interaction: Difficulties with social cues, communication styles, and unspoken workplace norms can lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
• Sensory Sensitivities: Overstimulating environments with bright lights, loud noises, or strong smells can be overwhelming and distracting, hindering focus and productivity.
• Rigid Thinking: Some autistic individuals prefer structured routines and may struggle with unexpected changes or flexible schedules.
• Interview Processes: Traditional interview formats, which heavily rely on social skills and self-promotion, may not accurately reflect an autistic individual’s qualifications and potential.

Strengths and Unique Perspectives

While challenges exist, autistic individuals also bring valuable strengths to the workplace:

• Attention to Detail: A meticulous eye for detail and a focus on accuracy can be invaluable in tasks that require precision and thoroughness.
• Pattern Recognition: Strong pattern recognition skills can be leveraged in data analysis, problem-solving, and identifying trends.
• Logical Thinking: Many autistic individuals excel in logical reasoning and systematic approaches to tasks, making them adept at technical roles and problem-solving.
• Focused Expertise: Intense interests and hyperfocus can lead to deep expertise in specific areas, making them valuable contributors in specialized fields.

Strategies for Success

To foster a more inclusive and supportive work environment for autistic individuals, several strategies can be implemented:

• Neurodiversity Training: Educating employers and colleagues about autism, neurodiversity, and different communication styles can promote understanding and collaboration.
• Accommodations: Providing accommodations such as quiet workspaces, flexible schedules, or clear and concise instructions can address sensory sensitivities and reduce anxiety.
• Alternative Interview Formats: Exploring alternative interview formats, such as work samples, project-based assessments, or structured interviews, can provide a more accurate representation of an individual’s skills and abilities.
• Mentorship Programs: Pairing autistic employees with mentors who understand their unique needs can provide guidance, support, and advocacy in the workplace.
• Employee Resource Groups: Creating employee resource groups for neurodivergent individuals can foster a sense of community, belonging, and support within the organization.

To create equitable and positive workplace cultures requires a mind and attitude that anyone can and should succeed regardless of any naturally differing abilities. This can start by recognizing anyone’s strengths and qualities and the impact they could have on any company or organization and its workforce. Just as importantly, everyone can have a chance to have a great life and creating a society where everyone can thrive and live together in peace. Neurodiversity and any corresponding term teaches us that no mind is marked by deficits, but only by limitless possibilities, dreams, and aspirations.

Neuroinclusivity and Accommodations:

For the Neurodivergent Community, accommodation always play a major role in workplace success. They serve as the steppingstone towards ensuring that someone can learn and successfully perform the tasks required of them every day. Accommodation or adjustments are ideas and small systems that serve to help Neurodivergent Individuals train and do any task or project that comes their way. This includes any tasks or projects that require multiple steps or ways of thinking.

Accommodations also can be about creating safe and peaceful work environments. For example, employers can assign Neurodivergent Employees to offices that are in quiet parts of office buildings. This could help anyone who identifies as Neurodivergent to stay focused without being distracted or overstimulated by outside noises or other environmental factors. Such steps and actions can go a long way towards helping anyone who identifies as Neurodivergent towards feeling included and belonged in any workplace that is the site of their dream careers. Accommodation is a resource to help any Neurodivergent Employee understand their job without taking extra steps that can make any learning process or action more difficult or tedious.

As a Neurodivergent Individual, I have found accommodations helpful in any job that I have ever had. At my current job at Holland & Knight, accommodations have appeared in the form of visual resources and tools that I use everyday when completing certain tasks. I identify as Autistic and someone who learns visually. The visual resources and tools that always work for me are using a map of employees when delivering mail, packages, or print jobs, an online map called Maptician, and an app called Arc2Independence. The latter resource is owned and managed by The Arc of Northern Virginia’s Tech for Independent Living (TFIL) Team. I currently have a series of lessons in it that are designed to help anyone learn tasks or skills through a series of steps. A lot of people who are Autistic or Neurodivergent can also identify as step-by-step thinkers and learners. As a result, any accommodations for us in these communities can involves resources like the Arc2Independence App. The same way of learning can be applied for learning skills in any life or independent living area.

The art of accommodation is to openly learn and understand anyone who has a disability or naturally differing ability. This involves not just learning from them on the surface, but to also get an idea of their complexities and most important values and needs. For those of us in the Neurodiverse Universe, this involves having an understanding and accepting attitude of our learning and thinking styles. Our approach to learning, thinking, and understanding the world around is different and unique to us. We are not bound by other people’s ways of thinking in the sense that we must conform, but to only learn, grow, and flourish in our own ways. This can be the beauty of human existence for all people regardless of any differences we may have towards each other. As the Job Accommodation Network rightfully lists below:

Accommodating Employees with Neurodiversity

What are common workplace challenges faced by neurodivergent employees?

Workplace challenges for neurodivergent employees can vary greatly from person to person. Some common challenges reported by neurodivergent employees, family members, advocates, providers of work supports and services, and employers include:

• Social skills
• Organization
• Concentration
• Sensory issues
• Time management
• Performing work effectively
• Stress management
• Interaction with coworkers
• Speaking and communicating

Accommodation Checklist

The checklist below outlines a practical approach to explore accommodation solutions and understand limitations. Organizations can work through each step to easily determine, implement, and document accommodations that are effective and responsive as needs change.

• Identify limitations: What limitations is the employee experiencing?
• Assess impact: How do these limitations impact employee job performance?
• Pinpoint tasks: What specific job tasks are affected?
• Explore solutions: What accommodations might help?
• Leverage resources: Are all possible resources being utilized to find solutions?
• Provide training: Do supervisors and employees need training to understand and implement accommodations?
• Implement: Have accommodations been put into place?
• Document activities: Are all accommodation steps and decisions documented?
• Follow up and Monitor: After accommodations are in place, would it be helpful to meet with the employee regularly to review effectiveness and discuss any needed adjustments?

Key Accommodations 

Some neurodivergent employees who meet the ADA definition of a disability, may need work accommodations to help them perform their work and maximize their talents and skills. Others may not. Accommodations should always be considered on a case-by-case basis, regardless of an employee’s disability or diagnosis. Below are some accommodation suggestions to explore when needed.

Accommodation ideas during recruitment and hiring:

• Fewer interviewers in a single setting
• Detailed instructions or note cards 
• Interview questions provided in advance 
• A job coach or family member as a support person
• Alternate assessments and/or demonstration of actual job skills and related talents
• Informational phone interview held before traditional interview 

Accommodation ideas to help sustain employment:

• Traditional and peer mentoring 
• Frequent and ongoing manager feedback and positive reinforcement
• Service or emotional support animal use 
• Remote work with needed assistive technology 
• Job task restructuring
• Workplace policy modifications, including flexible breaks
• Workplace modifications for sensitivities involving light, noise, and temperatures 
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) support
• Skills training”

Any of these ideas can be door openers for any Neurodivergent Individual to succeed and contribute to the career of their dreams. These accommodation ideas speak to anyone from this universe and how we would operate in any workplace on a regular basis. When we have access to accommodation, we have access to performing our jobs to the best of our ability. At the same time, we can feel like we can perform our jobs without any fear or intimidation.

Neuroinclusivity and Leadership:

Neuroinclusivity can never be possible without leadership from all sides of the triangle. That includes action and initiatives from management for any company or organization, from any committee or board of people, from any level of government, or from any group of people acting on proposed rules, policy, or law changes. Neuroinclusivity teaches us that all minds matter and that anyone should and must be included in employment in all its forms and complexities. In this world, anyone can be born and have different minds and ways of thinking. To create meaningful and lasting change for all of us requires leadership and action on anyone’s part. That starts with how you best learn in the workplace and why it would matter for other people. As Deloitte points out “Neurodiversity can be good for business

The business case for neuroinclusion is emerging as organizations realize that integrating neurodiverse professionals can lead to enhanced organizational productivity and greater innovation.¹³ The intersectional nature of neurodiverse conditions could mean that these shifts will potentially benefit multiple populations beyond neurodiverse individuals.

• Enhanced productivity: Research indicates neurodiverse professionals can be more productive than their neurotypical counterparts. For example, JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimates that employees hired into tech roles through its neurodiversity program are “90% to 140% more productive than others and have consistent, error-free work.”¹⁴ Executives we spoke to also point to higher retention rates among neurodiverse professionals for successful programs.¹⁵ These same executives suggest that accommodations to support neurodiverse professionals often benefit the productivity of their neurotypical workers as well.
• Better overall management practices: Many of the accommodations that organizations are implementing to benefit neurodiverse professionals, like increased clarity in communications, could also benefit management practices for the entire team. For example, the neurodiversity training company Uptimize recommends team managers tailor their communication strategy with a given neurodivergent professional. But they also recognize that this is a practice that should be done with all team members.¹⁶
• Increased innovation: Neurodiverse professionals can add greater cognitive diversity and creativity to teams.¹⁷ As a workforce neurodiversity advocate at a large multinational financial services company noted in our interviews, “Neurodiversity is not a superpower. [They] are different, and just like every other section of diversity, having a diverse workforce enables creativity that you’re not otherwise going to have if everybody thinks the same.”

When we all come and lead together as a team and community, we can create workplaces that are inclusive, welcoming, and equitable for all minds and abilities. This will always open doors for anyone to thrive, flourish, create, and innovate in different and unique ways. One can never know the possibilities of a workplace being successful with people of all abilities until you find carefully step by step.

Conclusion:

Thank you to everyone who has chosen to read this blog. That includes any fellow disability self-advocates, disability rights activists, and any allies in the disability self-advocacy and rights movements. Neuroinclusivity and Employment are inseparable to each other. They speak a common language to a broader movement to more equitable and open employment opportunities for people of any abilities and qualities. When we allow people of Neurodiverse pathways to enter into any workplace or career sector, there can always be limitless possibilities to human potential and everlasting motivation to better lives for everyone. To ensure more employment opportunities for Neurodivergent Individuals, we must always advocate to make them possible. That includes working with companies and organizations to tap more in Neurodivergent talent, for any disability self-advocate or activist to continually advocate for new laws or policies that ensure more employment opportunities are created for Neurodivergent people, for disability organizations to actively create resources and tools for people to get employed or point them in the right direction, and for anyone to always be open to new ideas and solutions. When we work together as one team, we can bring down the walls of exclusion and ensure that anyone of any abilities and neurodiverse pathways can prosper and bloom in any career they choose. The world of work is the gateway to one’s future life. Let’s make it possible for all of us to access it!

— Ryan Hill

Resources:

• https://keyassetskentucky.org/embracing-neurodiversity-in-the-workplace-strengthening-teams-fostering-inclusion/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23441301030&gbraid=0AAAABBN36mnaSeUZdnRfUC0VeHAybAtWd&gclid=CjwKCAjwwdbPBhBgEiwAxBRA4X9cp2DlomKnZFxQKUwvW_X2TIAD6DG1a0DpQPkQGwgzqiwOvoZDgRoCjI8QAvD_BwE
• https://washingtonautismalliance.org/neurodiversity-employment/
• https://askjan.org/disabilities/Neurodiversity.cfm
• https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/diversity-equity-inclusion/creating-neuroinclusive-workplace.html