Best practices for enabling neurodivergent people at work.
A framework of workplace practices that help organizations support employees with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, and related profiles. Each practice has observable signs that it is in place — called indicators — so organizations can review, measure, and improve.
NEI describes what good workplaces actually do to support neurodivergent employees — not in terms of values or intentions, but in terms of observable, improvable practices. Things you can look for, assess, and change.
Each practice in the framework comes with indicators — signs that the practice is in place. Some signs are visible from public sources. Others require the organization to document or demonstrate them. This means NEI can be used both by researchers assessing organizations from the outside and by organizations reviewing their own practices from the inside.
Some practices in NEI are broadly good management. But every indicator in NEI was included because it matters specifically for neurodivergent employees — often more than the organization realizes.
These are examples of the kind of practices NEI describes — specific, observable, and especially important for neurodivergent employees.
Performance reviews should measure results and impact — not communication style, eye contact, or how someone comes across in meetings. For many neurodivergent employees, style-based assessment is the single biggest obstacle to fair recognition, even when their actual work is excellent.
See this indicator →Employees who need a consistent physical workspace to work effectively should have one. Hot-desking requires people to re-establish their environment every day — overhead that many neurodivergent employees cannot simply work around. A stable workspace is a prerequisite for stable work.
See this indicator →Words like rule, policy, and required signal that strict adherence is expected and that enforcement is real. If something is more like a guideline or a preference — and others routinely ignore it without consequence — calling it a rule causes genuine harm.
Many neurodivergent employees interpret stated policies literally. When they follow a rule that others disregard unpunished, they bear a compliance cost that their colleagues don't. They also learn that the organization's stated norms can't be trusted — which makes every future instruction harder to calibrate.
Use precise language. Is it a rule, a guideline, or a preference?
See roles and boundaries indicator →NEI practices are relevant across all industries — but some are more commonly critical in specific contexts. Browse by industry to see which practices are most likely to matter in your organization.
Industry applicability mapping → Draft layer — in development
Review your organization's practices against a structured, evidence-based framework. Identify gaps and prioritize improvements without starting from scratch.
Understand what good workplace design looks like in concrete terms — and which management practices most affect neurodivergent team members.
Move beyond good intentions. NEI provides observable criteria for neurodivergent inclusion that can be tracked, reported, and improved.
Apply a framework grounded in how neurodivergent people actually experience work — not just general accessibility compliance.
Use a shared, citable framework when advising clients on neurodivergent workplace design — with clear criteria and evidence grounding.
Assess organizations from public sources using inferred criteria — no organizational cooperation required. Cite a stable, versioned framework in published work.
NEI is structured so that indicators can be assessed at different levels of rigour — from signals visible in public sources to independently verified evidence. It is developed openly, versioned like software, and governed through a transparent contribution process.
Indicators can be assessed from public sources (inferred), from publicly stated policies (declared), or through independent verification (validated). Not all tiers apply to every indicator.
Evidence methodology →Every indicator has a unique identifier and a version history. Changes are tracked, prior versions remain accessible, and the framework evolves through public contribution.
Releases →NEI is freely available under a Creative Commons licence for non-commercial use. Commercial use — including advisory, platform, and investment applications — requires permission.
Licensing →