Neurodiversity Celebration Week: our reflections

As a team grounded in accessibility practice, some of us from the very early days of the web, we have grown into our understanding of disability and neurodiversity over time. I say that, because it's been a learning rather than an active shaping. We've made mistakes along the way, and we still get things wrong. Intent is powerful, but it doesn't always prevent harm. Inclusion, when faced properly can be uncomfortable to those who never have and never will face exclusion.

There are some things an organisation can do, to offset the missteps and mistakes.

 

• 11% identify as disabled
• 27% identify as neurodivergent
• 81% categorise themselves as white
• 72% identify as women, with exactly 50/50 in management positions
• 28% belong to the LGBTQIA+ community

This creates a canvas on which we need to paint our understanding, through our employee resource groups, through inclusive meeting and language guidance, through training and raising awareness, and ultimately, through empathy. For some, we haven't got that right, haven't been right, but we continue to try. Starting from a position of othering isn't helpful, but we must recognise that neurotypical experiences currently shape organisations. We need to make space for difference and diversity.

One thing we have been successful in is building the kind of organisation people are happy to give feedback to. From events we have run, to recent meetups, people with lived experience have told us where we've failed. They've done that with grace, and offered generous, practical advice on how we can improve, That's like gold to any team that purports to be a learning organisation. Where we haven't got it right for you, we are sorry. Thank you though to those who continue to offer guidance, exposure, collaboration and learning.

To design and build products and services, the involvement of marginalised groups is critical. How and who you hire is important here. As a Disability Confident Employer, we have a duty to revisit policy, our communications, the interviews we hold and the onboarding experience. We have a duty to listen to experiences, and understand preferences, needs and behaviours. We have always had neurodivergent managers and employees, but that doesn't automatically lead to harmony and cohesion. Partnerships and training with organisations and trusted advisors like (DISC, Rachel Morgan-Trimmer at Firebird and Toby Mildon) help us check our bias and privilege, or simply help where we are too close to our own organisational pains.

Usability research, prototype testing and accessibility assessments HAVE to involve disabled and neurodivergent people. Too many times we have seen customers miss this opportunity, for reasons of cost, perceived complexity or fear of being found out. Centre the needs and experiences of disabled and neurodivergent people in your design process and you will build a better thing for everyone. Minimimum viable inclusion needs to get in the bin. Compliance shouldn't be your North Star.

If we treat it as an anti-pattern, we are effectively saying "ignore the experience of 20% of your potential audience so you can get to market quicker".

Make spaces welcoming, use clear signage, send stuff in advance, use PEEPs, video your office. This was a brilliant resource shared by KA McKercher on Access Guides. It is one of many, simple and impactful tools people can adopt: making an access guide | KA McKercher

Estimates suggest that neurodivergent people make up around 15% of the UK population. Disabled people and their families also represent a huge amount of economic influence, known as the Purple Pound, which equated to £446 billion purchasing potential in 2025. If we aren't including these people in our cultures, teams, ways of working, and when we design products and services, that's a huge section of our society we're excluding. If we are training AI and agents on data that misses their experience, we are effectively erasing them.

Ultimately though, when we talk about this data, what we are really talking about is people, friends, customers, colleagues and communities. True inclusion is about listening, being intersectional, and understanding that meeting people's different, sometimes even conflicting, needs is often a messy, incomplete and ongoing journey. But that journey has to start with representation, a willingness to learn, and being honest and transparent about mistakes and moments where we might have missed the mark.

We are learning, every day, not just this week.