This is our hub for Neurodivergent people, their managers, and allies. Neurodivergent people experience the world differently to neurotypical people but not every ND will consider themselves disabled. In a truly async environment, NDs can be helped to thrive at work.
s-neurodivergent-crew in Slack (public & allies welcome!)
s-neurodivergent-private in Slack (ask @Yasmine O'Connor to join & for self/formally diagnosed NDs)
If you work in or collaborate with the Product team, you can also engage with the #web-accessibility community to enhance our platform.
Oliva | Proper Mental Healthcare For The Whole Team
You might think it would be easier to join a huddle and speak verbally about a task, but do not assume it’s easier for your colleague - they may struggle with processing verbal instructions or they may be in the middle of symptoms that make speaking difficult. They might feel pressured to tell you about their disability to explain why they are saying no, or they may comply and put themselves in a difficult position.
Async is naturally accommodating to many disabilities, not just neurodivergents
When you have a disability and need to constantly ask for accommodations (like asking each week for the agenda in advance, or asking to make instructions more clear) on top of dealing with the symptoms of the disability, it can be draining on the individual, to the point they might stop asking for help and struggle to keep up quietly.
If the standard settings of async working (like written instructions, agenda in advance, avoiding meetings, making social time optional) are already in place then it can make a big impact on the individual and perhaps give them more energy for social calls, or time with their family.
Giving 100% effort looks different for everybody, even between days. Sometimes symptoms will make it difficult for an individual to contribute as much as they want, or at all. They might have to re-balance priorities, push back a meeting, or miss a day of work. Sometimes disabled people feel guilty or insecure because of those things, so showing support by offering to cover work while they are offline, encouraging them to rest when they need to, and showing up as somebody they can talk to or be honest with will help them get through each day.
Regardless of neurodivergence, each person has differing strengths and weaknesses - and find different things easy or challenging. Don’t assume that a person who is slow at a task, or struggles and needs extra guidance, is lazy or incapable. If you think that the person could improve how they handle something, talk to them about what challenges they face and accommodate
Async is naturally accommodating. It is one of the highest impact things you can make sure you do that will help your colleagues (and customers). Take (or re-take) the Async masterclass.
Remote’s Reasonable Accommodation Policy and the People team are your best contacts for discussing your personal accommodations.
These ideas might help you understand what an accommodation could look like for you as it’s sometimes hard to imagine what could make life a little easier on you when you’re struggling.
Top Ten Accommodations for Neurodivergent
Neurodiversity is a spectrum, and presents in many ways. One person might be great with verbal communication and body language, but struggle with visual stimulation and need a dark room/sunglasses to accommodate that. Another person might struggle with verbal communication and body language, and need instructions sent in writing to accommodate that, but is very good at explaining and breaking down topics that are of particular interest to them (including work topics!).
It would be useful to start a discussion with the candidate about what accommodations can help them specifically. They don’t need to tell you what areas they struggle with, but there is no one accommodation that can help an autistic person, as like all people, all support needs will be different.
Please also be patient with all candidates, but be especially mindful of silent cues you might believe are obvious, but may not be to a neurodivergent person. They may take questions very literally. If you ask “did you handle [task] in your previous role?” and they say “yes” then it is possible they did not understand the implied question was to elaborate. You can follow up with “please can you give me an example?” to help them understand the information you’d like to know about that task.
They might struggle to make eye contact (even over video calls), may struggle with auditory processing, or communicating verbally, or may find being on camera difficult. Consider if you need camera on for every interview and give them the option (if they start to get flustered and struggle with a question, you could offer to turn cameras off).
Make sure you are only assessing them for things relevant to the job. If they struggle with sync communication under pressure (like in an interview) would that impact their ability to do the job? Given Remote is async first, and if the role is not customer facing, could our environment actually help them do an even better job that they have done before?