Neurodiversity Celebration Week aims to transform how neurodiverse individuals are perceived and supported by providing organisations with the opportunity to recognise the many talents and advantages of being neurodivergent, while creating more inclusive and equitable cultures that celebrate differences and empowers every individual.
Ways to get involved to share and understand the lived experience of people who are neurodiverse:
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Learn more about Neurodiversity:
Visit online resources: Charities such as ADHD Foundation, National Autistic Society, British Dyslexia Association and the Dyspraxia Foundation
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Understand the importance of wellbeing conversations:
Having regular wellbeing conversations allows you to understand and identify how you can best support people around you, including your family and friends. Many people will know what support they need. Having wellbeing conversations can ensure that people can receive the adjustments they need to thrive in everyday activities.
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Embedding disability inclusion in all we do:
Think about how you can embed disability inclusion in the activities you do and the things you already do to support people around you, including family, colleagues and friends who are neurodiverse. Discuss with them what can you do differently or do more of and find out what information you need to help you achieve this. Our recent article How To Design Accessible Services For Neurodiversity contains points to help you get stated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I support someone who is Neurodiverse?
The first thing you can do is start by having a conversation with the individual, the following questions will help you identify what support they need.
- What are your strengths?
- What are your daily challenges in carrying out day-to-day activities?
- Is there support that you have found useful before?
- What can I do to help you overcome any challenges you’re facing?
What neurodiversity resources are available?
The Business Disability Forum (BDF) have a range of toolkits for organisations to support neuro-divergent staff, including resources, events and webinars via BDF Knowledge Hub.
What is a workplace adjustment?
Workplace Adjustments can be a change to a work process, practice, procedure or environment to remove barriers or a disadvantage, for people who need them and enable people to be their best selves at work.
What adjustments are available for neurodiverse people in workplaces?
Everyone is different, most people will know what type of support they may need. Here are some suggestions below (not an exhaustive list):
- Redesigning of a job role (known as job carving)
- Using noise reducing headphones to help focus by reducing distractions
- Quiet workspace/bookable desks
- Allowing extra time to read documents or to complete work.
- Technology adjustments such as;
- Screen reader technology
- Dictation software
- Mind mapping
- Using advanced grammar and spell checkers
- Changing background colour to reduce visual stress
- Using two monitors instead of just one
Some organisations implement a Workplace Adjustment Passport, which is a great tool to support employees and organisations to discuss and record agreed adjustments.
Digital Partnerships
At Achieve Foundation, we know from experience that the best way to help digitally excluded people is to provide one to one support with trusted digital champions.
A major drawback to digital inclusion is the resourcing of this support in terms of financing and availability of skilled champions. We believe that this can only be solved through partnership and collaboration.
Partnership is an essential foundation for digital inclusion strategies as no single organisation can solve this issue alone.
Therefore, Achieve Foundation continues to work with a wide variety of partners to build local digital inclusion partnerships.
Get in touch to partner with us to end digital inequalities.
This information is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated.
