Neurodiversity at Work Employers Roundtable
One of the powerhouse groups that actively encourages, advises, supports, and shares about employing the neurodistinct is the Neurodiversity at Work Employers Roundtable which is a committee under DisabilityIn.
For those of you not familiar with this group I will give you my version of who they are and their history. There are over 50 companies involved and range from major corporations such as Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Dell, Chevron, and Southwest to small employers and organizations that provide support and services for companies looking to become more neuroinclusive. History wise it all started with the Autism at Work efforts of SAP, Microsoft, EY, and DXC when Jose Valesco of SAP decided to put on a conference in 2015 to share what the 4 companies and experts they worked with learned while creating their ground breaking programs to employ the autistic. It became obvious there was wide interest in industry to learn more about how hiring and supporting the autistic could improve their companies productivity and innovation.
Neil Barnett of Microsoft, who was already deeply involved, stepped up to form and lead the Autism at Work Employers Roundtable to meet more frequently and provide support and encouragement to companies both starting and already on their journey of recognizing that not all people think the same way but all have unique perspectives to contribute. While the concepts of neurodiversity came out of autism with Judy Singers writing of her honor thesis it has snowballed to include all people who perceive, process and think in distinctly different styles. The group was renamed the Neurodiversity at Work Employers Roundtable to recognize that while many of the efforts target the autistic community there are many other communities that also thrive and bring unique contributions to the workplace.
My involvement with this group had a crazy beginning that I will spare you the details of here. I was told about and got an invitation to the 2nd conference held at SAP's Executive Center in Palo Alto California. This was about a year after I learned I was autistic. There was about 150 people in attendance and most of us were meeting each other for the first time. I was in the audience soaking up what I could learn about the amazing efforts of SAP, Microsoft, EY, and DXC. Through this conference I grew to know many of the leaders of these employment efforts from both the employer side as well as the academic world and the support community. Fast forward 8 years and a huge amount of effort supporting and advocating for neuroinclusive hiring and my submission was selected to be one of the 6 speakers at the 2024 Neurodiversity at Work Employers Roundtable's presentations and expo held in conjunction with the DisabilityIn 2024 Conference.
I am so excited to join this amazing lineup and present my unique autistic perspective regarding what neurodiversity is in a way that goes beyond simply explaining it. Further I shine the light on the fact that a company does not need to start a special hiring program to have neurodistinct team members, but that we are already in most companies and working in roles far outside the stereo types about the various conditions that fall under the umbrella of the neurodistinct.
