The Ultimate Neurodivergent Checklist: 50 Workplace Accommodations

Hello! Welcome to “50 Neurodivergent Adult Workplace Accommodations Checklist.” In this post, we will explore neurodivergent adult accommodation checklist ideas.

My primary interest in compiling this list is to help neurodivergent adults — especially teachers — although I feel the information can certainly be applied to other professions.

This can also help people who want to include neurodivergent employees in their company culture.

While the list of conditions is extensive, this post will focus primarily on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), AuDHD (a fairly newly coined term for a combination of the two), and sensory processing disorder (SPD).

This blog offers educational content; not medical advice. Please, consult a healthcare professional for personal mental health concerns.

When reading these lists, it is important to remember that every person is unique, regardless of brain wiring.

Further, not every person with a neurodivergent condition requires or even wants an accommodation in order to be successful at their job. Neurodivergent workers might benefit from one modification and not another, and these needs might fluctuate over time.

A modification that is primarily thought of as aiding autistic people, for example, might benefit someone with ADHD, and vice versa. Effective accommodations need to be specific to each person and their work environment, and several other variables. 

On the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) website, they have an amazing list of accommodations by disability.

Towards the start of their information, I appreciated that they include a description of some of the struggles ADHDers often face.

They mention being perfectionists, setting poor boundaries, and taking on too much at work. (Sound familiar?)

They start with a few general accommodations that typically apply to adults with ADHD, for the employers to keep in mind. But individuals can use this information too!

ADHD: General Principles

1. Help identifying strengths instead of focusing on weaknesses
2. Reinforcing creativity  
3. Pointing out any signs that the individual is overworked – not taking vacations, staying too late, not eating lunch
4. Providing an ADHD coach to suggest ways to increase productivity and maintain a healthy work-life balance
5. Normalizing some common characteristics of neurodiverse people and openly discussing the different ways neurodivergent people may or may not experience difficulties (my addition), thereby building inclusive workplace cultures 

My thoughts on how these would apply to teachers?

I think the strengths-based focus is fairly common, but I recognize that it varies greatly by state, district, and even school.

Reinforcing creativity could be a stretch, unless you think of it in terms of unlimited support in ordering supplies and/or curricular choices.

Pointing out signs that a teacher is overworked: this would be way too commonplace, as teachers *are* overworked, don't have time for lunch or bio breaks, and typically arrive early and stay late out of necessity.

These are unfortunately some of the major life activities of a teacher.

Providing an ADHD coach? It's possible someone could use their FSA or HSA money towards that, but it would vary greatly by insurance.

In my experience, ADHD coaches are (justifiably) so expensive; I have a hard time believing a school would voluntarily set aside funds for this. But who knows?

Here are some more of the common accommodations ideas I found or added specific to ADHD, whether for hyperactivity, focus, or time management, and how they may or may not readily apply to the lives of teachers.

Some would be more for the employer to implement, but it is all good information for the individual to have as well.

ADHD: Overarching Ideas

1. Provide structured breaks – this is a challenge for the obvious reason of there never being enough time in the day for the “breaks” teachers do get, much less an extra one for replenishing executive functions.
2. Allow the employee to work from home – remote work for teachers is really dependent on the organization they applied to work in and/or what else is going on (i.e., COVID closures);but in general, I find it highly unlikely, as it wouldn't really work due to the nature of the job requirements; perhaps in a high school or higher education this could work, or again, a company offering online tutoring.
3. Review conduct policy with employee – this could happen and be useful, if the qualified individual was making frequent behavioral mistakes (i.e., dress code violations, arriving late, etc.).
4. Adjust method of supervision – this could be useful in the sense of removing the unnecessary added stress of having teachers document student data using a form; could the evaluation include the teacher presenting that information with the help of assistive technology for example? Using speech-to-text could be an answer for someone who struggles with dyslexia.

For help focusing

1. Provide private workspace – this one is one of the most appropriate accommodations in my opinion, and yet one of the hardest to create, especially in overcrowded buildings.  
2. Allow use of noise cancellation (e.g., noise-cancelling headphones) – perhaps substituting these for earplugs that block some extraneous noise and blunt some of the stress which arises from them.
3. Uninterrupted work time – difficult to meet this one, and again one of the most important. Even during teachers “planning” after school, there are dozens of required meetings, not to mention the extra required administrative tasks (e.g., communicating with families, making copies at the printer, preparing packets, tabulating assessment data, grading and returning assignments)
4. Provide to-do lists — this does happen, depending on the organization's style and effectiveness, these kinds of lists can be found in weekly emails or updated staff announcements, for example; however, for more day-to-day tasks, a teacher needs to make those for themselves. (I did this a few different ways including making a routine in the Tiimo app.) Anything to help save that precious mental energy! The more you can automate daily tasks, the easier the day will be. 
5. Minimizing marginal functions to allow focus on essential job duties – This could work in the sense of not requiring an ADHD adult to join multiple afterschool committees, for example.
6. Provide written instructions instead of only explaining what needs to be done — This would likely fall under the weekly staff announcements type of info; or, possibly in the speech-to-text apps mentioned earlier for staff meetings.

For time management

1. Meetings to discuss expectations – yes, absolutely, especially if done sensitively and respectfully that allows the teacher to process information the way they prefer.
2. Allow the use of white noise machines — I did this and found it helpful for myself and my students.
3. Assistance with prioritization — this would be helpful, as so much of a teacher's daily life is spent in putting out proverbial fires. 
4. Timers – yes, please, always more timers! I used my Apple Watch a great deal. The haptic vibrations reminded me to stay on track with my time.
5. Calendars – yes, all the calendars. I used to get a few copies of the one the district made and put them in different places in eyesight. Then I could easily glance at it, along with the other school-specific calendars, my personal calendar(s), etc.
6. Apps – there are wonderful productivity apps available to adults with ADHD and other neurodivergences. Again, I have found Tiimo to be my main go-to. 
7. Speech-to-text: I haven't used this myself but I can see how valuable and helpful it would have been to have during meetings. The idea would be to capture what was being said in a written form to aid in comprehension. Brilliant!

For the individual, to help with leaving on time

1. Have a routine of putting things in place — this is, whew, tricky to say the least. I will just say the more creative you can get, the better. Put the backpack literally in front of the door so you have to step over it in order to not leave it behind. Use your awesome imagination to find unique ways of helping yourself get out of the door on time in the morning.
2. Create checklists for yourself and others — this works especially if you can involve a teammate or accountability partner.
3. Get to bed on time — I know, groan. This is by far one of the worst things we deal with — revenge bedtime procrastination. This will be another post in the near future. Some people have (limited) success with app blockers or other ways to curtail internet use at certain times of the day.
4. Use an annoying or attention-grabbing timer. Some timers have flashing lights to help!  

For Autism, ADHD, AuDHD, and SPD (and anyone else that benefits!) (Click for the info from JAN. See end of post for other resources.)

Ways to Combat Sensory Overload: Noise 

(Items that an education employer could provide to make their school one of the most neurodivergent-friendly workplaces around.)

1. Use a fan — I used to have a heavy industrial one I got for free from next to a dumpster. That thing will probably outlive us all. I actually gave it to the maintenance staff and got something a little bit softer. But you get the idea. In my case, I couldn't really use it as often as I would have liked, because of how distracting it was for some of my students.
2. Hearing Protection — Use heavy-duty headset style, active hearing, or special purpose ear muffs that attenuate sound as the noise level rises. An autistic person could benefit from an extra pair of these to have ready for when a fire alarm goes off.
3. Alerting Devices — For someone who is using headphones, these blinking visual aids or vibrating devices let the person who can't hear know that there is something important happening (e.g., fire alarm, phone call, etc.)
4. No bells – Some schools have gotten rid of bells that signal the beginning of a new class period. People who have anxiety, or any of the aforementioned conditions, can benefit from this, at least in terms of the physical stress response. (Maybe not so much in time management.)
5. Permission to miss large school and/or staff gatherings that tend to be extremely loud, like sporting matches or holiday gatherings.

Ways to Combat Sensory Overload: Light

1. Install anti-glare filters for fluorescent lights — at least where I've worked, this would not have been an option. Instead, I knew teachers who used fire-code-approved covers over their ceiling lights.
2. Provide anti-glare filters for laptop computers — I had never heard of this, but I was able to use a filter of my own on the webpages themselves to help reduce strain. Weirdly, I learned after the fact that printing with that filter in place does show up on the paper.
3. Provide blue-light filters for computers — similar to the above notes, but specifically for blue light.
4. Provide an alternative location where it is possible to adjust the lighting — in my experience, this would not have been possible due to space always being at a premium.

Ways to Combat Sensory Overload: Odor

1. Restrict the use of perfumes, colognes, scented body lotions, etc. — This was already done, in my experience, although the reason was more for protecting students with asthma and other breathing conditions. Still, I appreciated this and thought of it as a natural way to level the playing field for those of us who are quite sensitive to fragrance.
2. Maintain quality air filtration — Once COVID came along, this was not an issue. The indoor air quality was top-notch!
3. Provide a space away from the cafeteria if possible. — Perhaps, though not likely. 

Ways to Combat Sensory Overload: Deep Pressure/Texture/Touch Needs

1. Provide special seating options for the teacher — This could work especially since certain alternative seating is already available for students. It's possible, if nothing else, that a teach could use one of the bouncy chairs, for example. Ideally, though, it would be a separate purchase that was made specifically for adults. That is probably less likely. 
2. Provide funding for weighted blankets.
3. Provide funding for fidgets.
4. Provide funding for hammocks.
5. Provide funding for stretchy bands to use by a chair or desk. These last four items could be possible depending on the district, school, and administration. 

For many neurodivergent conditions

Ways to Support Social Skills 

1. Hire outside experts to work with students, if money is tight, who struggle with following unwritten rules. I know that teachers provided this kind of support to students I worked with. My thought is that adults could benefit from the same information.
2. Hire a coach to work with autistic students and adults in finding comfortable ways to work with eye contact. Of course, this is simply not possible for some individuals.
3. Invite outside service providers to come and speak with the school community to raise awareness and compassion for people who present somewhat differently than other teachers. 
4. Provide relevant resources via local libraries. — Indeed!
5. Provide an open, safe space for autistic individuals and other folks to share about their workplace challenges; or at least provide additional information for them to consult outside of school. — Finding national or virtual organizations to help with this is paramount. 

Social-Emotional Needs for Any Neurodivergent Person, Especially ADHD:

From James Ochoa's book, Focused Forward: Navigating the Storms of Adult ADHD

1. Read and provide copies of this book to anyone and everyone who knows or cares about an adult with ADHD. Simply fantastic material that finally pays specific attention to the emotional toll the condition takes, along with helpful suggestions. All of which is delivered in an ADHD-friendly way. 
2. For employers and employees: remember that ADHD is a performance-based disorder. It's not a question of whether or not the person knows what to do; because that is almost always already true. The question is working with the brain to help start and finish the task.

Sources

Personal experience or of people I have known, and other resources, including:

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/neurodivergent-workers-how-ask-accommodations-workplace/
• https://www.jamesochoa.com/focused-forward-book

Thank you for reading! Please comment with any additions you would like added to this ultimate checklist. For more information on these topics, check out the “Top 10 Essential Neurodivergent Teacher Accommodations” round-up, and “Understanding Neurodiverse Educators in the Classroom.”