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Best practices by industry

Not every workplace practice is equally urgent in every industry. The structural conditions, culture, and operational design of different industries create different risk profiles for neurodivergent employees.

A hospital, a software company, and a financial services firm all benefit from the same NEI practices — but the practices most commonly critical in each are different. This layer makes those differences explicit, to help organisations and practitioners focus their attention where it matters most.


Five industries are currently mapped. More are in development.

IndustryKey concerns
Technology and softwareOpen-plan noise, evaluation style bias, role ambiguity in agile teams
Financial servicesDisclosure risk, compliance burden, presentation-style evaluation
ManufacturingRole definition, supervisor continuity, disclosure in production environments
EducationAcademic style bias, ambiguous role expectations, disclosure stigma
HealthcareClinical role clarity, disclosure and registration risk, sensory load

View full industry applicability guide →


Each mapped indicator is assigned one of five relevance levels:

LevelWhat it means
CoreA primary concern in most organisations in this industry. Prioritise here.
HighRelevant to most organisations. Worth including in any assessment.
ModerateApplicable in many contexts; importance depends on organisation type and size.
Context-specificRelevant in some sub-industries or contexts but not universally.
LowLess commonly a primary concern; may still apply in specific circumstances.

Relevance labels describe likely applicability, not importance in absolute terms. A “Moderate” mapping does not mean the indicator is unimportant — it means it is less commonly a primary concern in this industry than a “Core” or “High” indicator.


Not a scoring methodology. Applicability mappings do not define how to aggregate assessments into a score or ranking.

Not a definitive classification. Every NEI indicator is potentially relevant in any industry. These mappings describe sector-level tendencies, not organization-specific determinations.

Not separate from indicator definitions. Applicability mappings do not change what an indicator means — only where it commonly matters most.


All mappings are provisional:

  • Based on initial practitioner judgment, not empirical data
  • Open for community review and challenge
  • May change as contributor input and sector-specific evidence develops
  • Should be treated as advisory guidance, not authoritative classification


Industry applicability mappings use NACE Rev.2 (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Revision 2) at Division level as the underlying classification system. NACE was chosen for its EU-wide adoption and compatibility with international equivalents (ISIC Rev.4, NAICS cross-walks).

Mappings target indicator concepts (e.g. NDI-2cdbgj), not specific indicator versions, so they remain valid across routine indicator updates.

Machine-readable data is available at stable URLs:

FileContents
/data/sector-relevance.jsonFull mappings — all industries, mapped indicators, rationale, status fields
/data/sectors-mini.jsonLLM-optimised — industries with aliases, summaries, and relevance groups