Ryan Boe of SmithGroup explores the importance of broadening DEI to include neurodiversity and how this can benefit workplace design.
Despite most companies’ increasing focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, neurodiversity is often overlooked in the discussion and hiring efforts. Neurodiversity refers to intrinsic variations in human brain function and cognition leading to unique skills, needs, and abilities. Those neurological differences affect social dynamics, cognitive functioning, motor skills, attention (deficit or hyperfocus), sensory stimulations, speech, language, and learning. Broadening DEI to include neurodiversity creates an inclusive work culture that fosters diversity of thought and different approaches to work, innovation, and creativity. A supportive, adaptive workplace can cultivate an environment where neurodiverse individuals are encouraged to leverage their attributes to thrive and belong (1).
Current Workplace Challenges
Some neurodivergent individuals may find the way societal systems are organized unsupportive and hindering one’s ability to thrive. Others navigate these systems by hiding signs of their neurodivergence, referred to as masking, as a coping mechanism that creates immense stress on their mental and physical health (1). Neurodivergent individuals are eager to work professionally but are often forced into lower skill jobs or left out of the workforce entirely. Lack of employment opportunities for this segment of the workforce are due to non-inclusive hiring and retention practices; lack of employer education, training, and support; and lack of sensory accommodations within built workplace environments.
As a result, unemployment for neurodivergent individuals is as high as 40%, which is eight times the rate of the general population. The statistics are even more alarming for individuals with autism. In the United States, it is estimated that 85% of people on the autism spectrum are unemployed, compared to 4.2% of the overall population. Consequently, the prevalence of autism amongst the unhoused is estimated at 20%, despite autism comprising less than 2% of the population (2). These statistics prove there is a direct correlation between the ability for neurodivergent individuals to maintain employment and live a fulfilling, sustainable life.
Adaptive Inclusive Design
Designers today have a moral imperative to create inclusive workplaces that support the spatial and sensory needs of neurodivergent individuals. One-size-fits-all is no longer an option for employers. If we design workplaces from an empathic approach and recognize the intrinsic needs of individuals, we will create more caring and inclusive work environments that enable individuals to control how they adapt to an office environment.
Sensory Sensitivity
Spatial and sensory sensitivities are the most common workplace challenges for neurodivergent individuals and may be over- or under-stimulated by factors in their environment. Such factors include visual stimuli, lighting, sound, texture, smell, air quality, thermal comfort, lack of spatial organization, and spatial transitions (3). These factors may cause neurodiverse individuals to have an adverse reaction to their environment, potentially resulting in physical or mental discomfort or harm.
Hypersensitive individuals have a magnified sensitivity to sensory stimulation and attempt to minimize exposure by seeking out neutral, controlled and ordered spaces. Hyposensitive individuals are less bothered by sensory inputs. They seek out experiences and space that offer play, discovery, exploration, contrast, and movement, and may prefer to work in a bustling environment. Providing design solutions that offer flexibility and controllability enables both hyper- and hyposensitive individuals to adapt and thrive within their workplace.
Variety, Flexibility and Choice
The best way to design for different spatial and sensory sensitivities is to offer choices between a variety of flexible spaces: quiet spaces for focused work; collaboration hubs for group work and socializing; and sensory rooms for sensory decompression or stimuli. It’s important to balance areas for collaboration with individualized privacy and control (4).
Sensory rooms could be used to address both hyper- and hyposensitive needs. A hypersensitive sensory room could be private with subdued lighting, muted colors and material palettes, and comfortable chairs that calm the senses and facilitate decompression from sensory overload. A hyposensitive sensory room alternatively would use vibrant colors, décor, and graphics and may include a workout or activity area visible from public spaces to attract sensory seekers and provide a place to re-energize after completing focused work or feeling a sensory depletion.
Flexible workspaces provide variety between open space workstations for collaboration, and private, enclosed rooms with customizable, controllable workstations for individual use. Varying the sizes of conference rooms would help control collaborative interaction or meeting size; these rooms should also include options for transparency and privacy screening for optimal flexibility of use.
Regardless of the specific approach or spatial use, visual design cues such as color-coded graphics and signage create clear spatial indication about a space’s intent, so people know what to expect in terms of acoustics, privacy, lighting, and other sensory elements (4).
Spatial Layout: Sequencing + Transitions
Spatial layout and sequencing of a workplace is another critically important design strategy that helps regulate sensory sensitivities for neurodivergent individuals. Knowing what to expect in terms of spatial progression is especially important for neurodivergent individuals that experience sensory overload when encountering an abrupt change. Spatial transitions between activity zones also help regulate sensory anxieties. Creating spaces that incorporate memorable landmarks and focal points, such as a staircase, help neurodivergent workers orient themselves and use a rhythm of common elements to generate a reassuring sensor of order.
To properly control sensory inputs, designers must create a gradient of spatial use and size beginning with public spaces near the office’s entry and extending through to more private spaces in the back of the workplace. Collaboration hubs near the entry support extraversion, where hyposensitive individuals thrive. Active zones encourage movement and interaction between collaborative hubs, conference rooms, and social spaces.
For more introverted, hypersensitive individuals, a clear pathway from the lobby entry to a low traffic area within the office helps alleviate social anxiety. This low traffic area could then lead to a central spine where more private workspaces and decompression spaces branch off from the circulation path.
Physical transition spaces are important to create a smooth sequential step between spatial function and use and help to alleviate anxiety that some individuals feel when moving between private and public spaces. Examples of spatial transition strategies include thresholds, portals, or an acoustic barrier. Spatial layout, furniture, materiality, and lighting can also create cues that convey purpose or indicate a transition or change in use within a space – all of which can help regulate adverse sensory reactions to change.
Diversity drives innovation, capital, and productivity
As we implement these neurodiverse design strategies into our current and future workplaces, we begin to create fully inclusive environments that adapt and support everyone. As more companies seek to create versatile environments that provide a range of preferences and adaptability, employees will feel more comfortable and more productive. In fact, more diverse organizations drive innovation and capital, earning 2.5 times higher cash flow per employee, while more inclusive teams can raise productivity over 35% (5). When companies begin to see the competitive edge of what designing for a neurodiverse workforce can offer, adaptive inclusive workplaces that are holistically diverse and equitable for all will be standard practice.
Sources:
- Report: Neurodiversity in the workplace: Building toward a more inclusive future of work. High Lantern Group for the Retirement & Wealth Solutions business at Bank of America. 2023 https://business.bofa.com/content/dam/flagship/workplace-benefits/id20_0905/documents/neurodiversity.pdf
- Online Publication: MyDisabilityJobs. Neurodiversity in the Workplace | Statistics | Update 2023 https://mydisabilityjobs.com/statistics/neurodiversity-in-the-workplace/
- Professional / Academic Publication: HOK, Sargent, Kay. et.all; Designing a Neurodiverse Workplace. 2019. https://www.hok.com/ideas/publications/hok-designing-a-neurodiverse-workplace/
- Online Publication: Fast Company, Shephard, Claire. Five detailed ways to design an office for neurodiversity. 21 June 2022. https://www.fastcompany.com/90762205/five-detailed-ways-to-design-an-office-for-neurodiversity
- Professional / Academic Publication: Metz, Georgia. Perkins + Will. Learning from Biodiversity to Support Neurodiversity in the Workplace. 18 April 2022. https://issuu.com/perkinswill/docs/neurodiversity_pdf
