And it's funny because when I think about the 1990s, I'm like, "Man, it was so long ago." The concept emerged really because of the growing recognition of advocacy within the autism community.

Because there wanted to be a larger influence of autism being a neurological difference or neurotype, as opposed to it being a disorder.

People, like Judy, wanted to make sure that neurodiverse individuals were looked at as having natural variations of the human brain, rather than having a deficit model.

An easy way for you to remember this particular definition is for you to break the word into two parts, neuro being brain, and diversity being differences. In this particular presentation today, you may hear the terms disorder, disability, and neurodiversity used interchangeably because I'm aiming to encompass the full spectrum of these neurological differences and conditions.

If you hear these terms used, I am trying to inclusively reflect the varied experiences and perspectives within the community and beyond.

Now that we know what neurodiversity is, and we have a cool way of remembering neuro being the brain, diversity being the differences, I want to kind of dive deeper, why should we care.

Why Should You Care About Neurodiversity in Your Workplace?

Why should we care about neurodiversity? Well, we should care about inclusion, diversity, and equity for many reasons. But if you need a few more reasons, then let's get into a couple.

Stats About How Neurodiverse Individuals Contribute to Their Workplace

There are three additional points that I want to make. I want to start with productivity. 90 to 140% of individuals that are neurodivergent are said to be more productive than their neurotypical counterparts.

This is based off of a study done by JP Morgan and Chase, and they found that during their neurodiverse programme hiring for tech roles, that 90 to 140% of their neurodiverse hires were more productive.

They were consistent, and their work was error free. That may be alarming, but I think that this is an amazing data point that is telling us a story essentially.

Next, we want to look at retention. Companies that prioritise inclusivity and accommodations for disabled employees often experience higher retention rates.

According to a study by the Institute of Corporate Productivity, organisations with inclusive hiring practises reported 72% higher employee retention rates.

That's another huge number that you can use as a data point as you're telling the story of why we should care as we are exploring neurodiversity needs as leaders.

We also found that disabled employees who feel valued and supported are more likely to stay with their employer long term, contributing to a stable and engaging work environment and overall team.

The last point I want to make, is with regard to ROI, which we know as the return on investment. So, businesses that invest in accommodations and support for disabled employees typically see some positive returns.

For every dollar invested in accommodations, companies will see potentially up to about $28 in benefits according to a report done by Job Accommodation Network.

When I came to tell you all why you should care, I came with the facts, I came with the receipts.

I want to say that improved workplace morale and productivity among disabled employees can enhance overall team performance and efficiency, which we know can impact and contribute to a higher ROI.

The Most Common Neurotypes Found in the Workplace

Now that I've given you a couple points to consider, I want you to hop one over in the chat and I want you to tell me, what are the most common neurotypes in the workplace?

We were talking about neurodiversity, we mentioned that it was a variation or a difference in the brain, and we also talked about Judy Singer who created the term neurodiversity based on the autism community.

Can you think about any neurotypes in the workplace? Holly says neurotypicals. Because as we know, no brain is the same, so let's think about some different neurotypes.

We hear autism pretty often. I see ADHD, dyslexia, OCD. Alright, giftedness, yes. High sensitivity, anxiety, absolutely. These are all common neurotypes.

However, the most common are autism, ADHD, and dyslexia, which was already stated in the chat. Bipolar disorder is also a common neurotype, as well as Tourette syndrome, Down syndrome, and we can go on and on and on.

We are going to now touch bases on autism, ADHD, and dyslexia, as those are the most common neurotypes we'll likely see at our workplace.

Autism – Hallmarks, Strengths & Job Misalignments

When it comes to autism, we will define it as a developmental disorder. Some of the hallmarks are need for structure, making less eye contact, preferring direct communication, and some of the commonalities will be that there are issues with social skills.

There's usually an inability to pick up social cues, awkwardness, and sometimes individuals not knowing good times to cut into a conversation.

What we will see with autistics are sometimes they are non-speaking. They have those communication and social skills that are developed differently from an atypical person.

Some quick notes on autism is that we found during the pandemic that a lot of people we revered and watched on television and enjoyed their work came out saying that they were autistic. And on the autism spectrum, some people including Elon Musk, Anthony Hopkins, Bill Gates, even Dan Aykroyd, and Jerry Seinfeld.

I want to touch bases on some strengths because a lot of times what we see are those deficit models. We see where, "Oh, they can't do this, they can't do that." But let's talk about what autistics can do.

Some strengths could include excellent memory retention, high regard for equitable treatment and honesty, strong work ethic and dedication, and excelling in tasks requiring focused attention.

They take pride in their work, and they do well with focused attention on one task at a time.

Now, as we're looking at the strengths, I think it's important to look at what would be considered a misalignment. We talked about all of the great things that our autistic colleagues and employees can do, but let's look at some misalignments.

These are some roles that may not be the best suited for autistics. We have politician, customer facing roles, and tour guide. Anything where there's a lot of communication that's needed is probably going to be a misalignment.

Anything that has potential for a lot of dialogue and exchange, and juggling of people can truly be a misalignment or a role that probably isn't better suited to those strengths.

Let's make a quick transition. We've talked tonnes about autism, and we know that there were three common neurotypes. Our next is ADHD.

ADHD – Hallmarks, Strengths & Job Misalignments

Now, this was one that a lot of you have mentioned as a popular neurotype, and you're correct. So as a quick definition, ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which means that it affects the development and function of the brain or nervous system.

It's usually characterised by difficulties with attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity that can impact functioning and behaviour.

Hallmarks include easily distracted, hyperfocus, attention is highly dependent on interest. Strengths will include rapid thinking abilities, high energy brainstorming and idea generation, as well as creative problem solving on the spot.

Individuals who identify as having ADHD usually think quickly. They're game for changing ideas and being think partners and thought partners, and they can't have all pragmatic, logical thinkers or all high-paced thinkers.

You need a mix in your team, you need a mix at your workplace, and this is what ADHD learners and individuals are very best at. They shake up the workplace and truly help us get a better sense of what we should be doing to solve a specific task or problem.

A misalignment would be similar to dyslexia in a sense, an assembly line, a monotonous, tedious task. There's no need to problem solve. There's no need to think quickly on your feet, and that wouldn't be the very best option with regard to work for someone with ADHD.

They need to always have some stimulus that is pumping and providing momentum for them, okay? So again, no creativity. They're just sitting there maybe typing away with no room to really think outside of that box that they're in.

Alright, so we've talked about autism. We've talked a bit about ADHD, now we are going to talk about our third most common neurotype in the workplace, and that is dyslexia.

Dyslexia – Hallmarks, Strengths & Job Misalignments

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the brain's ability to receive process, store, and respond to information.

It affects reading and language processing, which we've seen a lot, because we know dyslexia as a buzz word for individuals who struggle with reading.

Despite normal intelligence and adequate educational opportunities, we see a lot of dyslexic folks that are still having issues with processing written language as well as language that is spoken.

Some hallmarks would include difficulty, as I mentioned, with reading and writing, spelling can be inconsistent and challenging, and there are difficulties with organising speech and processing.

Some strengths would be that they are effective brainstormers and innovative thinkers, just like those we saw with ADHD. That was one of the strengths there. Their excellent visualisation skills and those visual-spatial abilities where they can recall information.

Now we can look at some of the misalignments. Usually, individuals with dyslexia have a great pictorial memory, and they are great architects, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

However, some misaligned roles could be data entry personnel, a court reporter, and an executive assistant, because they're going to be at a computer all day long doing data input.

It's not feeding their need to be creative, and it is not providing them with their stimulus to truly be able to be imaginative in the work that they're doing. It's very boring, and it is certainly not tapping into those strengths that we learned about a little earlier.

Every Neurodiverse Individual is Unique

Now that we've been able to look at why this should matter to us, as well as what neurotypes are the most prevalent, we're going to talk about why every neurodiverse person is unique.

We'll look at some statistics and look at some accommodations and talk a little bit about what that even means. Every neurodiverse person is unique, as I mentioned, and in understanding that there is what we call comorbidity.

Comorbidity simply means that there is an overlap of these disorders. So, 50 to 70% of individuals identified as having ADHD also are on the autism spectrum. 50 to 60% of individuals having ADHD, or being identified as having ADHD through a diagnosis, have also received a dyslexia diagnosis.

How You Can Support Neurodiverse Individuals with Accommodations

What does that mean for us when we are looking at ways in which we can support our neurodivergent colleagues and employees? Well, that means we need to look at providing support through accommodations.

Accommodations in the workplace refers to modifications or adjustments made to the environment, job duties, work processes, and things that align in that nature.

This enables employees with disabilities or who have been identified as neurodivergent, to perform their job duties effectively and adequately with support.

These accommodations are designed to ensure equal access to opportunities, facilities, resources, allowing individuals to contribute their skills and talents without any barriers. Now, for some companies, there are legal reasons why accommodations should be involved.

For some companies, they provide accommodations just so that they can meet that ROI we looked at. They can meet that work satisfaction, they can meet the performance reviews that are stellar, as well as retention.

We want to all create a workplace where accommodations are a vital step towards fostering inclusivity and support. When organisations, like the ones that you work for prioritise accommodations, they ensure that every single one of us can perform our best by removing those hurdles, those barriers to success.

This is essentially a proactive approach. Not only does it boost performance, like I mentioned, and morale, but it promotes a sense of fairness, a sense of equity, and it promotes a sense of belonging.

Let's chat about some accommodations.

Flexible Work Hours

Flexible work hours, simply put, is allowing the start and end times that can help during variable energy levels and productivity patterns.

Gauge what hours of the day your employees or your colleagues are the most productive, and see how you can work around that, how you can navigate that and use that to the best of your ability.

Remote Work Options

We want to provide opportunities or offer a reduction in sensory overload and provide a more comfortable and controlled work environment. I know during the pandemic that remote work became more viable for a lot of companies that never saw that as an option.

Clear communication

This goes without saying, but let's step into this a bit. So, we want to use clear, concise, and direct communication. We want to use written instructions because they can be particularly helpful.

We want to provide regular check-ins to ensure understanding and provide feedback. Clear communication is one of the most important accommodations that any neurotype could truly benefit from.

Being able to write down step-by-step what is needed, checking in, providing feedback, being clear, being open and honest in how you communicate, that is an accommodation that I would say is top tier.

Structured tasks

This aligns with that clear communication, because structured tasks means that you're breaking down those tasks into smaller, manageable steps with clear deadlines and expectations. You're using project management tools to track progress and keep everything organised.

Assistive technology

As someone who's worked as a speech language pathologist, I have a lot of experience using different tech tools to promote learning and to truly be that game changer for individuals who have experienced different disabilities or neurodiversities.

So, with assistive technology, we can provide different software or hardware that aids in productivity, such as speech to text programmes and text to speech programmes, organisational apps like with the structured tasks or special keyboards, mice, special chairs, anything like that is considered an assistive technology.

Mental Health Support

I am seeing the decline of mental health with a lot of our counterparts. And as an employer, I think it's our responsibility to make sure we're offering access to mental health resources and not just saying, "Oh, you can use your insurance to go see a therapist."

But really being an advocate for the health and wellbeing of your colleagues and employees, including counselling services that are within the workplace and employee assistant programmes as well.

Coaching & Career Development

More accommodations, and I hope that you all are taking notes because we've looked at six so far and we have a few more left.

Job coaching and career development is considered an accommodation. This is when you provide access to mentoring and coaching, which can help to build the career of that neurodiverse individual.

It can help them navigating the workplace challenges and also help them to see themselves in a role that is outside of what they're currently doing. Maybe they can take on a leadership role, but they don't know that that is possible if they don't have proper coaching in place.

Sensory Accommodations

Sensory accommodations are essential because if they are not working from home and they are in a cubicle, or in some type of non-lit area, there should be an adjustment of light, or reducing those sounds that they hear.

Hence the headphones, even sometimes scents in the workplace can be a little detrimental when you come in and look or smells like you just poured a whole bottle of perfume on yourself. That can trigger people in ways that you may not even be aware.

Time Management Tools

Offering tools and strategies to help with time management, such as timers, reminders, scheduling apps.

And I would say if you are taking notes to make sure you write down the Pomodoro Timing Method. That's a really amazing method that was created that would considerably be a time management tool.

Workplace accommodations are less about niceties and more about building a resilient workplace that serves all effectively in the long run.

Why Your Team May Choose to Disclose (Or Not Disclose) Their Neurodiversity

You all have been able to hear quite a bit of information in terms of neurotypes, defining neurodiversity, looking at accommodations and understanding your why.

Why is this important? Let's look at some disclosures. Accommodations in the workplace, as we mentioned already refers to those modifications and adjustments.

But what if your employee, your colleague, doesn't want to disclose that they have a disability or that they are neurodiverse? What would that look like?

There are lots of strengths that come along with being able to disclose, but they can also come with some challenges. So to disclose or not to disclose is a big question.

Some factors I can think of would be, "I wouldn't want someone to think less of me. I wouldn't want my employer to give me a lot less work because they don't think I can keep up with my counterparts."

And then on the other end disclose, you might say, "You know what? I am going to speak my truth so that I can get what I need to succeed in this place."

I want you all to share in the chat what percent of people with disabilities or with neurodiversity disclose to their employer. Just give me any number you can think of, and we will talk a little bit about the actual percentage of people who've disclosed.

I see 12%, 3%, 15%. Okay, 5%, right? So, you think basically nobody is disclosing at all, and it's good, I like that our brains are calculating a number that we feel is relevant and that we agree is on par with how many people disclose.

Alright, so let's look at this number, drum roll please. Alright, so 76% of employees decide not to disclose while 24% decide to disclose.

Now, as I stated, I'm coming with receipts. This is from an Accenture global study of about 6,000 employees. During this study, they found that 76% of employees with disabilities, report not fully disclosing their disability at work.

They didn't tell their HR manager, they didn't tell their colleagues or supervisors or managers because they just did not feel comfortable disclosing.

However, we see that 24% of the employees in the survey who had a disability agreed that their workplace culture was fully committed to helping them thrive and succeed. They had no problem telling their employer about their neurodiversity needs, their diagnosis, their disability, or anything for that matter.

I see in the chat that it really depends on the work culture, company location. I also see older established companies versus younger startup companies might be the divider.

Maybe they are the ones who can't mask enough. Maybe people who have a problem with masking say, "Hey, you know, I'm just going to keep it real. I'm just going to tell you all exactly where I'm coming from”, right?

Disclosure becomes significantly easier when employees feel a true sense of belonging and safety in the workplace. It's important to create an environment where everyone is valued and protected.

That allows each and every one of us to share our experiences and needs openly. It fosters an inclusive and supportive organisational culture because that's the goal, essentially.

Factors influencing disability disclosure decisions in the workplace may vary, and the impact of disclosure does as well. There are complexities and considerations involved in disclosing disabilities in the workplace.

How to Respectfully Discuss Accommodations for Your Team Members

When we are discussing accommodations, what does that look like? We talked about disclosure, how some people may want to, others may not, based on how safe they feel, or based on whether they feel they won't get treated like their counterparts.

In today's diverse workforce, building a safe and inclusive workplace is crucial for maximising talent and ensuring that everyone feels safe, valued, and like they are a part of the team. By understanding the do's and don'ts of workplace culture, employers can cultivate an environment where all employees thrive and contribute their best.

We're going to discuss what that looks like when we are telling our employer that, "Hey, I have a medical issue and I want to bring it to your attention."

When we're discussing accommodations, we want to discuss them privately. We don't want to call anybody out. As leaders, we want to call them in.

That means if you are seeing some patterns, if you are seeing some inconsistencies, let's have a dialogue. Let's discuss privately what we feel could be helpful as it relates to an accommodation.

We don't want to ask anybody about their medical diagnosis. We don't want to get caught up in the legal red tape. However, we know that accommodations are for everyone.

So, a great conversation to have with our new hires would be to simply ask them, "Hey, is there anything, any software, devices, any assistive technologies that you feel would help you as you are onboarding in this position?"

Again, we to make sure as leaders, we are discussing accommodations privately with those and making them feel safe as they are telling us their needs.

We don't want to call anybody out. "Hey Sam, you haven't been doing a good job. Do you have ADHD or something?" That's certainly not ethical.

We do not want to fall into that trap even if we are upset. We don't want to coerce anybody to tell us about their medical diagnosis because as I said, accommodations could be for everyone. They could be helpful for all individuals.

Questions You Can Ask Team Members to Uncover Helpful Accommodations For Them

Here are some helpful ways in which you can get that conversation started. We talked about some don'ts, so let's talk about some do's, in a sense.

You can simply ask, "Do you have any particular needs or adjustments that we can support you with to enhance your work experience? How can we assist in making your work environment more accessible and supportive for you? Is there any special equipment or modifications to your workplace that you require to do your job comfortably?"

These are very simple questions, very thoughtful questions, and I think that in asking these particular questions, you show a level of humanity. You show a level of vulnerability, and you show a level of consideration.

I don't know about you, but if my employer asks me these questions, I would feel okay about answering them. I wouldn't feel like I'm being called out, I wouldn't feel as though I was being singled out. I think these are simply put, and they encompass how you want support that person.

Some helpful statements could include,

"Your comfort is important to me. Don't hesitate to share any accommodations that you need or accommodation needs you might have. We want our workplace to be as inclusive as possible.

I encourage you to communicate any specific needs or accommodations that would benefit you."

A quick disclaimer, let's make sure if we're asking these questions and making these statements that we mean them. We mean what we say, and that we are going to be vigilant about providing solutions once we have made these statements and asked these particular questions.

How to Make Meetings More Inclusive

Now we'll talk about inclusive meetings. What does that look like? How can this benefit every single person on your team?

We went from looking at having those discussions about helpful accommodations and providing questions and statements that really help gauge where our employees and colleagues are.

But let's look at a simple example of how to facilitate a meeting, which is very inclusive and one that every single person on your team could truly benefit from.

As I mentioned in our diverse workforce, we want to be advocates for safe, inclusive workplaces. We want to make sure we're creating a sense of belonging, and that our workplace culture is one that contributes to us thriving and contributing our very best.

These are some do's for inclusive meetings. We do want to set a positive tone and encourage everybody to contribute.

While we discuss these do's, I want you to consider how those who are nonverbal or have a speech fluency disorder could have alternate ways to contribute.

We use that word contribute, and obviously it's a verb, but how do people with nonverbal abilities, or those who have some fluency disorders like, they stutter or stammer or clutter, how can they still contribute to a meeting? I want you to think about that. You can put it in the chat or you can just ruminate on that.

We want to make sure that we have alternate ways for our team members to contribute, such as participating in meetings via email or text, ensuring their perspectives are included and valued.

This approach allows all of us to engage actively in discussions, leveraging our diverse communication styles to enrich those collaborative outcomes.

Just a few words that'll take the ice out of that cold, frigid situation that we all know as meetings.

Another do is to set clear rules, establish those ground rules to create a comfortable environment for sharing. You can say something as simple as,

Just being able to set those rules in that eloquent way, bam, you have now established a very comfortable environment for sharing.

You can go on, if you have a chatty bunch and say,

Again, just a simple way to establish those ground rules, but also to set a positive tone. What we don't want to do, when it comes to having these inclusive meetings that we will be facilitating very soon, we don't want to have a task-first approach. We want to avoid that completely.

We don't want to just jump into the meeting and straight start talking about what needs to be done. We don't want to say, "Hey, we called this meeting today so that we can finish up this sprint, alright? So Judith, you need to do this, Lenny, you need to do that."

That is certainly not how we are setting a positive tone or establishing ground rules. So be mindful of that task-first approach.

We also don't want to dismiss opinions. Don't ask for opinions if you're not prepared to take them seriously and act on them.

So, if you ask for feedback, if you ask for constructive criticism, you need to be prepared to process what is said and to move accordingly. If you don't think you are in a space where you can process information that is given to you, don't ask for opinions.

Another do I want to acknowledge is we want to celebrate diversity. And what that could look like is, recognising and just appreciating the perspectives within your team, taking a moment out to acknowledge wins, acknowledge birthdays, cultural festivities.

That can even be done by doing an inventory to see who celebrates what, what's important to whom, and so on and so forth.

The facilitator of the meeting, as we know, sets the tone and makes sure that the first person to talk makes everyone comfortable with sharing. And we want to lead by example.

We want to act on the feedback that we receive to demonstrate our commitment to the team input.

So, if the team says, "Hey, we feel like Jerry talks too much. Every meeting, Jerry is just talking, talking, talking."

Well, hey, we want to take that feedback and maybe we tell Jerry,

So we want to act on feedback that's received to demonstrate commitment to our team input.

Key Takeaways

Alright, we have talked about a ton of things today. We've talked about inclusive meetings, accommodations, common neurotypes, and so much more.

I want to get to some key takeaways which are how neurodiverse individuals bring lots of strengths to the workplace.

We looked at autism, dyslexia, and ADHD. We discussed those misalignments, those roles that don't quite fit, and we looked at some of those really strong abilities that are coming into our teams and into our workplace.

We also looked at accommodations and how, essentially, they could be good for everyone. Working from home could be good for someone who is paraplegic.

It could be good for someone who experiences ADHD from time to time. It could also be good for someone who is breastfeeding. You know, accommodations can be good for everyone.

We want to make sure we're calling in folks and not calling them out. It's never okay to single someone out, point someone out and tell them all about the deficits or the flaws that they exude.

We want to call people in and say, "Hey, let's have a conversation, let's discuss some things."

Then finally, we talked about setting the tone in inclusive meetings. We can't expect our meetings to be inclusive of everyone if we're not beginning that meeting by saying,