All inclusive: Neurodiversity and safety

Making sure safety systems are well-adapted to the needs of neurodiverse employees is often good for the whole workforce, says Louis Wustemann.

For centuries, as many as one in five people has struggled at work or in their communities to compensate for the fact that they had brains that made some kinds of thinking and information processing difficult. Now we are beginning to shift the burden of adjustment for this substantial minority of neurodiverse people so it is partly shared by schools and employers.

We are also starting to understand that along with the challenges people with conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and dyslexia may face, they also often have particular aptitudes that can benefit both themselves and an employer offering the appropriate support. That support, in the form of reasonable adjustments, is required when the condition is covered by equalities legislation. But what does it involve for safety managers tasked with ensuring everyone at work is equally protected?

Rosie Russell is Director of Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability at genetic medicine developers MeiraGTx and also President of the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management. As someone who is on the autistic spectrum, Rosie has written and spoken frequently about the ways to support different neurotypes at work.

Building understanding

Ensuring neurodiverse employees receive the best levels of protection involves understanding their needs and sensitivities, she says. She gives the example of PPE: “Some neurodiverse people have sensory problems; they don't like the touch or feel or smell of certain things. That can be an issue when it comes to finding PPE that they're able to wear.”

More commonly, they may face challenges absorbing safety communications. “With dyslexia, written instructions are a problem,” she says. “But then you have other areas such as ADHD, where verbal instructions are a problem and written instructions work better.”

“So the ability to communicate with someone who is neurodiverse is quite nuanced. Unless the management are well aware of this and are taking the time to make sure that communication is neuro-inclusive, vital information could be missed in a safety critical environment.”

But rather than adding an extra burden of making special provision for small groups of workers, many of the adjustments that will help support neurodivergent employees to perform at their best are also ones that optimise conditions for everyone

Benefitting all

Research into preferred learning styles among neurotypical workers shows that they divide into groups who absorb information better when presented in aural, written or visual form. So providing training that offers information in a variety of media make it more likely to make it stick in all trainee’s minds, not just those with particular needs.

Similarly, method statements and other safety documentation that extend to tens of pages without an upfront summary of the essential points is not just unhelpful to the one in 10 employees who is dyslexic, it makes it harder for everyone to grasp the vital information.

The Government’s employment advisory and conciliation service ACAS gives the following example of an adjustment for a neurodivergent individual – in this case with dyspraxia, which affects movement and coordination: “An employee in an off licence is dyspraxic. They ask for the storeroom to be organised so that nothing is left on the floor. And shelves are arranged so that everything is easy to get to.” This is simply good housekeeping; removing trip hazards for one employee removes them for everyone.

Similarly, the recommendation for neurodivergent office-based workers is that they should be provided with work settings away from open-plan desk areas to use for tasks that call for periods of concentration, provided with noise-cancelling headphones to block out distractions, or encouraged to schedule these tasks for homeworking days. But best practice in office space planning is for everyone to have a choice of enclosed and open spaces, depending on the level of attention they need to bring to a piece of work. British Standards Institution has produced a free-to-download specification, PAS 6463, with advice on how to design workspace that is more inclusive of all neurotypes.

“I think this something that we need to get through is that a lot of these ‘adjustments’ are actually productivity aids that can help the entire workforce,” Rosie says.

Thinking differently

More than that, she says that it is important not just to think of neurodivergent workers making extra work for employers but to be aware of the benefits they bring to an organisation. Though the legacy names for some conditions still contain the term “disorder”, contemporary thinking recognises the balance of strengths and weaknesses these neurotypes possess.

Rosie cites the Dandelion Programme, reported in the Harvard Business Review, that was run by IT services company Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the Australian government’s social services department and placed tens of software developers with ASD in jobs in the ministry. The teams they worked in were reportedly 30 per cent more productive than those with wholly neurotypical members. The programme has since been expanded to other government departments.

“So it's actually better in a team of people doing more or less the same job, to allow specialism within the team, in fact, to encourage it,” says Rosie. “But you need to do that awareness raising amongst the staff. Yes, Joe over there is a bit weird, you know, but actually, Joe sees things in a way that the rest of you don't.”

In the safety sphere, different neurotypes will come with different aptitudes. Rosie says she arranged for a group of laboratory staff to be trained in biological safety. “They are externally accredited and qualified effectively as biological safety officers,” she says. “I got them to do an audit. One of them is an autistic neurotype and the pages of stuff I got back [from that person] were incredible; they are so aware of their environment.”

The rules-based predisposition common to people on the autistic spectrum makes them less likely to go with the flow when faced with instructions that would compromise safety rules. “They tend to be incorruptible,” says Rosie. “You can't get an autistic person to do something that clashes with their values.”

There will be advantages to having different neurotypes in a workplace, and there will be adjustments that may help the neurodivergent members work more productively and safely. There are excellent websites maintained by the charities and associations advocating for people with ADHD, ASD or dyslexia that will provide insights into what challenges each different form of neurodiversity may pose for people at work. But second guessing what are the necessary adjustments for any individual is a waste of time; it is best just to ask them.

“I think a lot of this comes down to people-centred management,” says Rosie. “…And I think it's incumbent on business to have managers who are properly understand the people that they're managing, because I believe that a manager's first duty is to create an environment in which their people can thrive, because everything else stems from that.”