METHODS AND RESEARCH PROCESS

It is important to understand the various methods, limitations and processes we used to obtain the findings and create the narrative of this report.

• We undertook a review of the literature on the relationship between the biological stress response and the various diagnosed conditions within the neurodiversity community.

• We conducted interviews with a range of experts, from those in the medical professions to those with knowledge obtained from lived experience, in order to understand the phenomenon of burnout as it is experienced by many in the neurodiverse community in relation to employment and office spaces.

• We also conducted expert interviews to understand the experience of a neurodivergent person in an office.

This information was used as both research and phenomenological knowledge in this report.

• We held various roundtable discussions to discuss the research outputs in order to understand their design implications.

• We employed various people from the neurodiverse community to write this report, as it is important to bring lived experience to a highly phenomenological subject matter.

• All interviews were done anonymously to avoid pressure and stress for those being interviewed.

LIMITATIONS AND CAVEATS

There are various limitations we would like to acknowledge to highlight the need for further research and work in this subject area.

• The interviewees did not include people from the essential worker (a key worker within a workforce) community, which are an important demographic working in office spaces. To correct this, we conducted research on essential workers in relation to neurodiversity, and have included design insights that will be supportive to their work environments.

• This report is not intended as the setting of a universal design code because, first of all, the neurodivergent

Courtesy of AECOM. Copyright Hufton+Crow

community is not a monolith. Second, there are variances within a person on a day-to-day basis. Third, culture plays a key role in how a person feels in a space. Finally, a universal code deters the much needed dialogue that employers, developers and people need to have to make bespoke and emphatic design decisions.

• Every lived experience that we have included in this report is just one story and one perspective; there are millions of others. Therefore, this is just a sample, not a rule or an even profile of neurodiversity. ■