Responses – Week of 6/1

I hadn’t heard the phrase “neurodiversity” until I read this article, but I liked a quote from John Elder Robinson in the article which described neurodiversity as “the idea that neurological differences like autism and ADHD are the result of normal, natural variation in the human genome” which is accurate and inoffensive. The article explains that many people with neurological conditions have extraordinary skills in areas other people might not such as pattern recognition, memory, and mathematics. Despite these skills, the neurodiverse population remains largely unemployed (roughly 80% unemployment rate, this includes people with neurological conditions that prevent them from working in any capacity) because it takes more time and energy to hire someone with a neurological condition. Another two reasons why the neurodiverse population remains untapped is that traditional recruitment methods like job interviews and the belief that scalable work processes require absolute conformity to standardized approaches end up filtering out neurodiverse people who could be valuable employees. More and more companies in the last 4-5 years have reformed HR practices to capitalize on the talents of neurodiverse people, which has benefitted those companies in terms of productivity, reputational enhancement, innovation, and employee engagement. In the process, these companies are becoming better able to fully leverage the skills of all workers.