CONFIDENCE IS UP. BUT SUPPORT IS FALLING BEHIND.

The City & Guilds Foundation’s 2026 Neurodiversity Index found that employer confidence in supporting neurodivergent staff has never been higher — yet the lived experience of those same employees has worsened. Neurodivergent workers report slower access to adjustments, lower psychological safety, and greater exposure to microaggressions than in previous years.

10 Key Insights from the Neurodiversity Index 2026
1. Awareness has outpaced action. Employer readiness confidence sits at around 70–75%, yet only 32–38% of neurodivergent employees feel psychologically safe. The gap has widened since 2025.
2. Managers are the make-or-break factor. Line managers remain both the main gateway to support and the most common point of failure. Training has increased, but behaviour change has lagged.
3. Adjustments improve performance. Around six in ten neurodivergent employees say adjustments would help them work better. Needs-led conversations should be routine, not diagnosis-dependent.
4. Adjustment delays cause real harm. Neurodivergent employees are more than twice as likely to wait over three months for adjustments (31% vs 12%), with delays linked to stress and poorer mental health.
5. Disclosure still feels unsafe. Around one in three employees only ask for help once things have already gone wrong. Fewer than one in five feel comfortable raising needs at interview stage.
6. Microaggressions predict burnout. Everyday behaviours — interruptions, assumptions about competence, inconsistent feedback — strongly contribute to disengagement.
7. Intersectionality amplifies risk. Women and non-binary neurodivergent employees report higher microaggressions and lower psychological safety. Older employees are more likely to have masked for years.
8. HR capability is a bottleneck. Confidence in HR’s ability to manage complex or changing needs remains low. One-off training is not enough.
9. Onboarding is a fragile point. Only around two in five neurodivergent staff experience sustained support during onboarding.

10. Systemic change is now essential. Policies and awareness campaigns alone are insufficient. Real inclusion requires consistent manager behaviours, faster adjustment pathways, and workplaces designed with neurodivergent needs in mind from the start.

The message is clear: the data is there; the awareness is there — but the systems are not keeping pace with the people inside them. 2026 is the year the community is demanding a move from good intentions to real infrastructure.

AI as Ally — and the Risks We Cannot Ignore
Artificial intelligence is making personalised support for neurodivergent people more affordable and accessible. From speech-to-text and meeting summaries to adaptive learning platforms and focus aids, AI tools are reducing cognitive load and breaking down everyday barriers. The 2025 EY Global Neuroinclusion at Work Study found that 30% of neurodivergent professionals have strong skills in AI and big data — and are 55% more likely to use AI at work than neurotypical colleagues.

Where AI Is Helping
• Meeting summaries and transcription. Tools like Otter.ai transcribe and condense meetings in real time — a practical lifeline for anyone who struggles with note-taking or processing dense information.
• Writing and communication assistants. Grammarly and generative AI tools help dyslexic employees draft and refine written work, reducing pressure while preserving individual voice.
• Scheduling and task management. Platforms that break large projects into smaller steps and send timely prompts provide structure for people with ADHD or executive- function challenges.
• Focus and stress regulation. Apps using AI-generated soundscapes, gamified interventions, and smartwatch prompts help employees self-regulate and manage energy across the day.
• Neurodiverse talent in AI development. Neurodivergent employees have proven strengths in pattern recognition and detail. At AutonomyWorks, autistic data labellers were 150% more productive than peers. JPMorgan Chase’s Autism at Work programme saw participants perform 90–140% more work with zero errors.

Where the Risks Lie
• Bias in hiring tools. AI systems trained on biased data can perpetuate discrimination. A 2024 study found that ChatGPT-4 penalised CVs mentioning disability awards and undervalued autistic candidates' leadership potential. Around 70% of companies now use AI hiring tools, raising the risk of systemic exclusion.
• Poorly designed tools. Rigid, inflexible systems become barriers rather than aids. Intrusive notifications and pop-ups can overwhelm neurodivergent users rather than support them.
• Privacy concerns. Wearables and neurocognitive monitoring tools raise significant data privacy questions. Employees must be able to opt out.

• Persistent inclusion gaps. Despite high AI engagement, only 25% of neurodivergent professionals feel truly included at work, and 91% still face barriers to career progression.

What Good Practice Looks Like
Researchers and practitioners are aligned: AI must be designed with neurodivergent users from the start, not retrofitted afterwards. Key principles include co-designing tools with neurodivergent employees and testers; auditing algorithms regularly for disability-related bias; maintaining human oversight in all high-stakes decisions; and ensuring data policies are transparent and opt-out is possible. The future workplace will be shaped by AI — and neurodivergent professionals are well placed to help design it well.

Words Matter: The Language Debate
This year’s Neurodiversity Celebration Week, held in March under the theme “From Awareness to Action: Making Organisational Change Happen”; put language front and centre. Educators and advocates challenged terminology still in common use in schools, workplaces, and clinical settings — language that centres deficit rather than difference.

The shift being called for is from the medical model (fixing or curing neurological difference) to the social model (identifying society’s barriers as the problem to solve). A UK survey of over 900 neurodivergent adults found strong feelings about how language shapes perception, and how the wrong words can undo years of progress.

Is the School Ready for the Child?
Educators are being asked to reframe the question entirely. Practical toolkits from Neurodiversity Celebration Week covered sensory-friendly classrooms, personalised learning plans, and mentorship-based models. Higher education institutions are also embedding neurodiversity-affirming principles into research and training — recognising that the next generation of neurodivergent students will not wait to be accommodated; they will expect to be included.

Did you know?

Current screening tools miss approximately 50% of girls with autism. Historically, autism has been described through a male lens, leaving practitioners predisposed to treat mental health presentations in females as stand-alone conditions rather than co-occurring with autism. On average, women face a 10-year delay in receiving an autism diagnosis from the first time they present to mental health services. (Bargiela et al., 2016; Gesi et al., 2021)

Menopause, Late Diagnosis, and the Hidden Toll of Masking
Two health issues stand out in current research. The first is the impact of menopause on neurodivergent women: hormonal changes disrupt careers for women with ADHD, autism, and related conditions, yet this intersection remains poorly understood and rarely addressed at work. (Zaib et al., 2025)

The second is masking — the sustained effort of hiding neurodivergent traits in order to fit in. For adults diagnosed late in life, often after years of waiting, long-term masking is linked to higher rates of anxiety, burnout, and depression. (Alaghband-rad et al., 2023) The conversation around what unmasking looks like, and what makes an environment genuinely safe enough to
attempt it, has never been more urgent.

On Unmasking: In Your Own Time, In Your Own Way
“Stop masking” is almost as unhelpful as “just focus”. We say it so casually, as if there is a simple off-switch for years of survival strategy. The truth is, unmasking is not a single moment. It is a gradual, tender, sometimes terrifying process of learning to trust that you are enough as you are.

This May, as the conversation around masking grows louder, here are some gentle ways to begin — or continue — that journey.

• Know your safe spaces. You do not have to unmask everywhere at once. Begin with one person or one environment where you already feel relatively safe. Notice how it feels to let one small thing drop.
• Name what you are masking. Keep a private journal for a week. What did you suppress today? Eye contact that felt unnatural? A stim you held back? Naming it helps you understand the cost.
• Grieve what you have lost. Many neurodivergent adults feel deep grief when they receive a late diagnosis. That grief is valid. Make space for it rather than rushing past it.
• Find your community. Connecting with others who share your neurotype is often the single most powerful step. Forums, peer groups, and spaces like Neuro Directory exist for exactly this reason.
• Go at your own pace. Unmasking is not a productivity goal. There is no deadline. Be patient with yourself — you have been accommodating the world for a long time.
• Celebrate the small moments. Stimming quietly in a meeting. Saying “I need that in writing.” These are acts of courage. Celebrate them.

You do not need to perform neurotypicality to deserve support. You just need to be you — in
your own time, in your own way.

REFERENCES
Alaghband-rad, J. et al. (2023). Masking in autism and its links to anxiety, burnout, and
depression.
Bargiela, S. et al. (2016). The experiences of late-diagnosed women with autism spectrum
conditions. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Gesi, C. et al. (2021). Late diagnosis of autism in women: barriers, consequences, and the case
for inclusive assessment.
Rogelberg, S. (2025). AI tools in neurodivergent employment contexts.
Zaib, S. et al. (2025). Menopause and neurodivergent women in the workplace.
EY (2025). Global Neuroinclusion at Work Study.
City & Guilds Foundation (2026). Neurodiversity Index Report 2026.
NeuroBridge (2026). Neurodiversity and DEI in UK organisations.