Supporting Neurodiversity in the Workplace
1.27.2025
As more neurodiverse people enter the workplace, employers will need to find ways to accommodate them under the Americans With Disabilities Act. A panel presented by the Labor and Employment Law Section of the New York State Bar Association discussed how attorneys can assist neurodiverse employees and their employers.
The speakers were:
- Victoria Lipnic, partner at Resolution Economics and former commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C.
- James Maraventano, program director at Rutgers University Center for Adult Autism Services in New Brunswick, NJ.
- Nicholas Sikon, partner at Outten & Golden in New York, NY.
- Coby Turner, senior counsel, Employment Litigation & Remediation at Kaiser Permanente in Sacramento, CA.
Lipnic moderated the panel.
“Neurodiversity is the concept and the idea that everyone’s brain works differently,” said Maraventano. “But when you start to think about individuals that are neurodivergent, you’re thinking about individuals that have some sort of neurodevelopmental condition.”
That includes neurological or developmental conditions like autism, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Tourette syndrome, dyslexia and dyspraxia.
It is estimated that 60% to 85% of autistic adults are unemployed. While it is possible to accommodate neurodivergent people, employers will need to have an honest conversation about what is needed to do that.
“I find that in the employer context, that often reasonable accommodation requested by the individual can be challenging because it often affects the people that work around them,” said Turner. “Or you can’t tell the people that work around them what’s going on because of privacy reasons… There also generally needs to be a conversation with the individual about what you can disclose to the coworkers and the manager.”
For example, if an employee has Tourette syndrome and yells out expletives when they are stressed, other employees may need to know why in order to prevent complaints.
Gen Z – people born between 1997 to 2012 – are more likely to request accommodations in the workplace, while older generations are more likely to mask their behaviors.
A reasonable accommodation can also include removing or altering some of an employee’s responsibilities.
“You don’t have to remove an essential function,” said Turner. “That’s not required by the law. But you do have to remove duties that are not central to the person’s role. And that’s where a lot of employers get tripped up.”
Another type of an accommodation is a job coach – someone who accompanies an employee and assists them with understanding their role and the workplace.
“There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what the role of a coach is, or a person that supports an individual,” said Maraventano. “After you break down those misperceptions about what the role of a job coach is, I tend to find that a lot of employers are very welcoming to the idea, because it’s less work for the employer ultimately… Those job coaches come to support those individuals help learn those jobs in a more efficient manner, to help them navigate the nuances of the social and relational issues that may bubble up in work, to help them continue to advance and advocate for themselves.”
Maraventano added that job coaches are usually funded by social services like Medicaid, and are typically covered by liability insurance from the agency they are hired from, which frees employers from having to provide insurance in case of an accident.
Another possible accommodation is training and education for other employees so that they know that their autistic coworker has difficulty understanding sarcasm, or flaps their arms when they’re happy.
Other examples of reasonable accommodations for neurodiverse people include:
- A part-time or a modified work schedule.
- Noise-canceling headphones.
- A checklist of tasks to cut down on distractions and forgetfulness.
- Transcription software and screen reader programs.
- Service animals.
- Remote work.
Panelists also discussed what happens when accommodations get in the way of safety. They considered a hypothetical situation of a warehouse employee with post-traumatic stress disorder who is triggered by loud and sudden noises, and subsequently asks to wear noise-canceling headphones. An employer may not want to do that for safety reasons.
Panelists said that in such situations, it was important for employers to get creative. Could the employee work during a less noisy shift? How can they cut down on situations that could trigger the employee?
“If you’re trying to include individuals with disabilities in the workplace, you have to think outside the box,” said Turner.
