Autistic adults are likely working in your company. How do you ensure they have access in the workplace?

Melissa Walker made it clear that, although she used the word neurodiversity throughout her ATD23 session on Monday, she was focusing on autism. It’s a term she knows, as she was diagnosed with autism as an adult.

Walker presents this session at various conferences because the neurodivergent community, which includes people with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and Tourette’s syndrome, is underrepresented in all spaces.

“When we talk about the neurodiversity movement, it is about inclusivity,” Walker explained. “We are reframing, and one of the biggest reframes is about social norms. How do we look at social norms? And how do they play into all of our spaces?”

Among other spaces, such as at home and at school, Walker asked her attentive crowd how they handle those social norms in the workplace.

“I’m lucky to be in a space that is very supportive of me, and at this point in my career, I can be loud, and I can be annoying. And I can be that person that brings neurodiversity up every conversation they have,” she said. “But because of that, I do get the luxury of doing things like us starting a neurodivergent ERG \[employee resource group\].”

Walker has worked in organizational development for two decades. She currently serves as the organizational development manager for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

In addition, Walker’s current team is neurodiverse, which further proves her point that neurodivergent people should be part of companies’ DEI plans.

“This is the kicker. Neurodiversity has the largest intersection among other identities,” she stated. “Over 80 percent \[of neurodiverse individuals\] intersect with other identities. This is important.”

The facts, Walker says, are that there’s a general lack of resources available for autistic adults. Part of that is because research is conducted by neurotypical people, including research from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention that estimates only 2.21 percent of adults in the US are autistic.

“Do you know how hard it is to get diagnosed as an adult?” Walker asks, laughing. “It’s ridiculous. Many adults go undiagnosed. They don’t know. They don’t have the resources. Do you know how many kiddos go undiagnosed because it’s assumed it’s just behavioral problems?

“You are more likely to be diagnosed with a neurodivergent diagnosis as a child if you are white middle class. That’s a fact." Because bias determines that the the same issue presents like autism in a white child, but presents like a behavior problem in an underrepresented minority child.

Those diagnosis issues loom for autistic people into adulthood, which bleeds into the workplace. And, Walker explains, autistic adults aren’t only working transactional jobs. So, you may not know it, but you likely know an autistic adult.

But there’s a financial aspect in the workplace, too.

“How expensive is it for us to set up a room that’s only for two percent of our employees? How expensive is it for you to retrain people?” Walker asks. “How expensive is it for you to upskill someone? How expensive is it for you to hire new people? This is just a tiny subset of the DEI work the company should be doing already.”