Institute for Neurodiversity and Employment

Success Enablers that Empower Neurodivergent Technology Professionals (SEEN Tech Professionals)

Two professionals sit in front of their computers and smile for the camera at an event.SEEN Tech Professionals investigates how to more effectively enable the success and advancement of neurodivergent employees in the technology workplace. We do so by investigating specific success enablers grounded in an asset model of disability and considerate of the unique needs, interests, and strengths of neurodivergent individuals in the context of their work. Success enablers are a broader set of practices and work designs that include accommodations but are not limited to them. Success enablers include both support and, more importantly, changes to the workplace environment.

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The goal of SEEN Tech Professionals is to 1) empower neurodivergent professionals in the technology sector to determine, identify, and use what they deem as appropriate success enablers based on their intersecting identities and 2) build the capacity of organizations to systemize and normalize the use of success enablers more readily. To this end, we investigate three central questions:

  1. What are the most common success enablers neurodivergent individuals identify as critical in the workplace?
  2. What role do managers play in identifying, normalizing, and systemizing success enablers to support their ND employees?
  3. What are the organizational characteristics that support or limit the identification, implementation, and systemization of success enablers?

A woman works on a desktop computer in her own office with a laptop beside her.Timeline

The project will be carried out in three phases over three years. In Phase 1, we identify success enablers in the workplace using OIMIB by conducting semi-structured interviews and focus groups with a broadly recruited and criteria-based sample. Findings from Phase 1 will inform Phase 2 when we verify success enablers by conducting nationwide surveys of neurodivergent advocates, managers, employers, and providers. Informed by the first two phases, in Phase 3 we will identify and co-design interventions and facilitators that make success enablers more easily discoverable, usable, and normalized to support neurodivergent professionals and their managers. We will conduct participatory design sessions in three workshops with key stakeholders to create high-impact interventions organized in a comprehensive Neuroinclusive Success Enablers Toolkit designed for technology employers and neurodivergent professionals.

An employee sits on a couch looking through paperwork while sitting in front of her laptop. Her dog is laying at her side.Broader Impact

The project will improve the technology workplace environment and contribute to NSF’s strategic goal to advance equity for neurodivergent professionals by creating The Neuroinclusive Success Enablers Toolkit. Informed by our findings and input from our Advisory Group that provides authentic neurodivergent experience, the Toolkit compiles interventions designed to empower neurodivergent employees and build the capacity of their managers, HR professionals, and providers to leverage and normalize success enablers. The Toolkit will be freely available in accessible formats on the project website and distributed widely.

Project Leadership

Principal Investigator: Hala Annabi
Co-Principal Investigators: Jennifer Mankoff, Scott Bellman, Elizabeth Follmer
Graduate Research Assistant: Anushka Bhagchandani

National Science Foundation LogoFunding Source

SEEN Tech Professionals (NSF# 2347367) was awarded as part of NSF’s Workplace Equity for Persons with Disabilities in STEM and STEM Education. The project is funded by the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM’s EDU Core Research program (ECR).