A neurodiversity specialist says employers could revolutionise HR processes by changing the way they think about making workspaces accessible.
Nancy Doyle, founder of Genius Within and co-founder of the Centre for Neurodiversity at Work at the University of London,said waiting for diagnoses wastes time because so many adjustments can be anticipated.
She reported on the People Management website: “The practice of requesting disclosure and diagnosis before offering support belongs in the past.
“Adjustments given out one at a time, to one person at a time, based on their ability to ask for help, is deeply flawed on several levels.
“It’s high time for universal design. The idea that we design workspaces, policies, processes and software with a wider range of abilities in mind. It’s complex and requires cultural change, so many businesses feel they can’t get to it yet. But the tsunami of diagnoses coming down the track is forcing our hands.
“We simply can’t scale adjustments as they are now, so we need to have a huge rethink and tackle the complexity head on.”
Nancy suggested three simple steps which she said can give designers a start:
“The best predictor of the future is the past – by analysing trends in the adjustments you have already provided in the past few years, you get a clue as to what you will need going forward. You can simply start issuing these without waiting for people to ask.
“Don’t waste money on diagnosis when the most popular adjustments are free. The most popular adjustments, across all disabilities, are flexibility on location (quiet spaces needed) and hours. Do you really need to spend thousands on a diagnosis before offering these, or can you build them into your HR process?
“This is about performance of a role, not a medical label. We are not the health service. It’s not our job, as employers, to step in where diagnosis should be part of our health infrastructure. Our job is to simply ask ‘how can I support you to work at your best?’ The goal of neuro inclusion is to make our working spaces more inclusive for all.”
