A Workplace Accommodation Isn’t an Unfair Advantage. It Removes a Barrier Others May Not Face

By Robert Rackley MSc MIACP
Neurodivergent Psychotherapist | ADHD & Autism Specialist

A workplace accommodation is sometimes misunderstood as an employee receiving special treatment.

A quieter workspace.

Written instructions.

Flexible working hours.

Permission to wear noise-cancelling headphones.

Additional time to process information.

A change in how meetings are managed.

From the outside, these adjustments can appear to make work easier for one person while everyone else continues under the usual conditions.

But this misses the reason the accommodation is needed.

A workplace accommodation does not give someone an unfair advantage.

It removes a barrier that other employees may not face.

Equal treatment is not always identical treatment

Fairness is often confused with treating everybody in exactly the same way.

The same working environment.

The same communication style.

The same schedule.

The same expectations.

The same method of completing a task.

But identical treatment does not automatically create equal access.

If one employee can concentrate in an open-plan office while another experiences significant sensory overload, giving both people the same desk does not place them on equal ground.

If one employee can remember verbal instructions easily while another has working-memory difficulties, giving both people information only in a fast-paced meeting does not create an equal opportunity to perform.

If one person can move quickly between meetings and tasks while another requires transition time, expecting identical responses from both may overlook a genuine difference in how much mental effort is required.

Equality is not about pretending that everybody experiences the workplace in the same way.

It is about recognising barriers and taking reasonable steps to reduce them.

What is a workplace accommodation?

A workplace accommodation is an adjustment that enables an employee to access, participate in or carry out their work more effectively.

In Ireland, the term reasonable accommodation is commonly used. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission explains that reasonable accommodation may include adapting premises, changing working hours or assigning tasks differently. Employees can request reasonable accommodation during recruitment as well as while in employment. You can read more through the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission’s guidance on disability and work.

For a neurodivergent employee, an accommodation might involve:

• Written instructions following verbal discussions
• A quieter workspace
• Noise-cancelling headphones
• Reduced fluorescent lighting
• Clearer priorities and deadlines
• Predictable meeting structures
• Advance notice of significant changes
• Flexibility around start or finish times
• Additional processing time
• Regular short breaks
• Remote or hybrid working where appropriate
• Breaking larger projects into clearer stages
• A consistent point of contact
• Alternatives to unnecessary phone calls
• Permission to keep a camera off during some online meetings
• Interview questions supplied in advance where appropriate
• Clear, direct feedback rather than implied expectations

Not every neurodivergent employee will need these adjustments.

Two people with the same diagnosis may have very different needs. Accommodations should be based on the individual, their role and the barriers they actually experience—not on assumptions about ADHD or autism.

The barrier may be invisible

Physical barriers can be easier to recognise.

If an employee cannot enter a building because there are steps but no accessible alternative, the barrier is visible.

Many barriers experienced by ADHD and autistic employees are less obvious.

A colleague may appear calm while struggling to filter conversations, phones, movement and background noise.

An employee may contribute confidently during a meeting but remember very little afterwards because they were trying to listen, take notes, regulate their attention and work out when to speak at the same time.

A manager may see somebody completing work successfully without seeing the additional hours, anxiety, overpreparation or recovery time required.

A person may appear organised because they have developed complicated systems to prevent mistakes.

When a difficulty is hidden, the support can appear unnecessary.

This is one reason “high functioning” can be such a misleading description. Visible performance does not tell us what maintaining that performance costs.

Many ADHD and autistic adults become so good at coping that nobody realises they are struggling. An accommodation may not be helping them do less. It may be helping them work without having to sacrifice their mental health to maintain the same outward performance.

Why the standard workplace can create barriers

Most workplaces were not designed with every type of brain or nervous system in mind.

They may depend heavily on:

• Open-plan offices
• Frequent interruptions
• Unwritten social expectations
• Rapid verbal communication
• Unclear priorities
• Last-minute changes
• Back-to-back meetings
• Multitasking
• Hot-desking
• Networking and informal relationship-building
• Constant availability
• Indirect feedback
• Sensory environments that employees cannot control

Some people can manage these demands without significant difficulty.

Others must use considerable energy simply to remain regulated and understand what is expected.

An open-plan office may be mildly distracting for one employee but disabling for another.

A vague instruction such as “Use your initiative and get it done soon” may feel flexible to one person and deeply unclear to another.

A last-minute change may be inconvenient for one employee but cause significant dysregulation for an autistic colleague who had prepared carefully for the original plan.

The problem is not always a lack of ability.

Sometimes the environment prevents the employee from accessing their ability consistently.

As I discuss in Being Neurodivergent: Moving Beyond Blame, bright lights, noise, sensory overwhelm and rigid systems can become barriers when workplaces fail to account for different ways of processing and functioning.

Accommodations do not remove the essential role

An accommodation should not be understood as removing every expectation or responsibility from an employee.

It changes how the person accesses or performs their work where appropriate.

A person receiving written instructions is still expected to complete the task.

An employee using headphones is still responsible for their work.

A flexible starting time does not necessarily reduce the number of contracted hours.

Receiving advance notice of a meeting does not remove the need to attend.

Having clearer priorities does not lower professional standards.

The adjustment addresses the barrier, not the employee’s underlying competence.

This distinction matters because some employees worry that asking for support will cause others to question their ability.

They may fear being seen as:

• Difficult
• Less capable
• Unreliable
• Demanding
• Unable to cope
• Receiving special treatment
• Using their diagnosis as an excuse

As a result, they may continue struggling privately until their performance, confidence or health begins to deteriorate.

Support offered early can prevent a manageable barrier from becoming a crisis.

Why accommodations can improve performance

An employee cannot consistently give their best work while using much of their capacity to survive the environment.

Consider an autistic employee who spends the day managing unpredictable noise, bright lighting and repeated interruptions.

Their attention is divided between the work and regulating the impact of the environment.

Providing a quieter workspace does not create an advantage over colleagues who can already work comfortably in the existing environment.

It reduces the additional load.

Similarly, an ADHD employee may understand a project well but struggle when priorities remain unclear or instructions are spread across several conversations.

A short written summary may reduce errors, repeated questions and time lost trying to reconstruct what was agreed.

These adjustments can benefit both employee and employer through:

• Improved concentration
• Clearer communication
• Fewer misunderstandings
• Reduced absence
• Greater consistency
• Better use of the person’s skills
• Reduced risk of burnout
• Increased retention
• Stronger psychological safety
• Greater employee engagement

A helpful accommodation is not a favour that produces no organisational benefit.

It can allow an employee’s actual ability to become more visible.

The cost of working without accommodation

When support is not available, many neurodivergent employees compensate.

They arrive early to prepare.

They stay late to finish work interrupted during the day.

They repeatedly check emails because they do not trust themselves to have understood correctly.

They suppress stimming.

They force eye contact.

They rehearse conversations.

They work through breaks.

They hide sensory discomfort.

They avoid asking clarifying questions because they fear appearing incompetent.

They spend evenings recovering from the effort of appearing fine.

This is masking.

Masking can help an employee blend into the workplace, but it does not remove the underlying difficulty. It often transfers the cost from the organisation to the person.

The workplace continues as usual while the employee privately absorbs the impact through anxiety, exhaustion and reduced capacity outside work.

Adult ADHD masking can look like organisation, commitment or high performance. Underneath, it may involve constant overpreparation, double-checking and fear of making mistakes.

This way of working may be sustainable for a period.

Eventually, the cost can become too high.

Accommodations can help prevent burnout

Neurodivergent burnout does not necessarily appear suddenly.

It can develop after months or years of working in an environment that requires constant adaptation.

The employee may initially appear to manage well.

They may even be praised for their resilience, flexibility or work ethic.

Over time, however, they may experience:

• Increasing exhaustion
• Greater sensory sensitivity
• Reduced concentration
• Difficulty beginning tasks
• Emotional dysregulation
• More frequent mistakes
• Withdrawal
• Increased anxiety or low mood
• Reduced tolerance for change
• Loss of skills they could previously access
• Longer recovery after work
• Increased absence
• Complete inability to continue working

By the time the difficulty becomes visible, the person may already have spent a long time trying to cope without support.

As I explore in Neurodivergent Burnout Doesn’t Happen Suddenly, burnout often develops after sustained masking, overcompensation and pressure to function in environments that do not meet neurodivergent needs.

A reasonable adjustment introduced early may reduce the conditions contributing to that burnout.

“But everyone will want the same thing”

One concern employers sometimes have is that granting an accommodation will lead every employee to request it.

This concern treats the adjustment as a reward.

But accommodations are not prizes.

They are responses to specific barriers.

Employees may also benefit from different forms of support. One person may need fewer interruptions. Another may need regular check-ins. Someone else may work better with a predictable schedule.

The fact that one employee needs an adjustment does not mean every colleague requires the same thing.

At the same time, employers may discover that some accommodations improve working conditions more widely.

Clear written instructions help many people, not only ADHD employees.

Structured meetings are often more efficient for everyone.

Advance notice of change helps teams plan.

Flexible working can improve retention.

Reduced unnecessary sensory demands may make the environment more comfortable for all staff.

An individual accommodation and inclusive workplace design are not competing approaches.

Often, one helps identify opportunities for the other.

Disclosure should not become a demand for personal history

Neurodivergent employees may find requesting accommodations difficult.

They may have to decide how much personal or medical information to disclose, whether their diagnosis will be taken seriously and how the request may affect colleagues’ perceptions.

A request for an adjustment should not become an expectation that the employee share every detail of their diagnosis, mental health or personal history with multiple people.

The useful workplace conversation is generally about:

• The barrier being experienced
• How it affects the person’s work
• What adjustment may help
• Whether the proposed adjustment is practical
• How it will be introduced
• When it will be reviewed
• Who needs to know

Confidentiality is important.

So is respectful curiosity.

A manager does not need to become an expert in the employee’s diagnosis. They do need to listen, avoid assumptions and participate meaningfully in finding a workable response.

Employees may not know what to request

An employee may understand that work is becoming overwhelming without knowing which accommodation would help.

This is particularly common following a late ADHD or autism diagnosis.

The person may be recognising their needs for the first time after years of assuming they simply had to try harder.

They may say:

“I struggle in the office.”

“I cannot keep up with meetings.”

“I’m exhausted after work.”

“I need more structure.”

“I become overwhelmed when plans change.”

These statements can begin a conversation, even if the person does not yet have a complete solution.

Useful questions include:

• Which part of the working day creates the most difficulty?
• What happens when that difficulty occurs?
• Are sensory demands involved?
• Would written information help?
• Is the problem the task or how it is currently communicated?
• Does the employee need greater predictability?
• Would fewer interruptions improve concentration?
• Is the timing or location of the work contributing to the barrier?
• What has helped in the past?
• Could an adjustment be trialled and reviewed?

The goal is not to make the employee prove that they are struggling enough.

It is to understand the barrier well enough to explore an effective response.

Accommodations need to be individual

A list of “ADHD accommodations” or “autism accommodations” can be a useful starting point, but it should never replace a conversation with the person.

Not every ADHD employee wants frequent check-ins.

Not every autistic employee wants to work remotely.

Some people benefit from structure; others experience excessive monitoring as pressure.

One employee may need meetings recorded or summarised. Another may find recordings anxiety-provoking and prefer brief written actions.

The same adjustment can support one person and create difficulty for another.

Effective accommodation begins with listening.

It also requires review.

A support that helped during one project may not fit a new role. An adjustment may need to change as demands, health or working conditions change.

Neuroinclusion is not achieved by creating one standard package for every neurodivergent employee.

It is achieved by recognising individual needs without making the person feel like a problem.

Managers need support too

Line managers are often expected to respond to accommodation requests without enough training.

They may want to be supportive but feel unsure about what they can ask, what they can agree to or how to balance individual needs with team responsibilities.

Without guidance, managers may:

• Avoid the conversation
• Make assumptions based on stereotypes
• Focus only on diagnosis
• Agree to something without planning how it will work
• Reject a request too quickly
• Treat the employee’s need as a performance problem
• Share information unnecessarily
• Expect the employee to design the entire solution alone

Neurodiversity training should move beyond awareness and help managers develop practical skills.

This includes understanding executive functioning, sensory processing, communication differences, masking, burnout and the importance of individualised support.

It should also help managers hold clear conversations about the essential requirements of the role.

An inclusive workplace still needs boundaries, accountability and honest communication.

The difference is that these are applied with an understanding of the barriers the employee may face.

Reasonable accommodation in Ireland

Under Ireland’s Employment Equality Acts, employers may have obligations to take appropriate measures to enable a person with a disability to access, participate in or advance in employment, unless those measures would impose a disproportionate burden.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission’s factsheet on reasonable accommodation in employment provides further information about these rights and responsibilities.

Every situation depends on its individual facts, including the employee’s needs, the role, the proposed adjustment and the circumstances of the organisation.

This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Employees or employers who need guidance about a specific situation should consult an appropriate employment, equality or legal service.

But the principle extends beyond legal compliance.

A workplace can meet only the minimum requirement, or it can build a culture in which employees feel safe to explain what helps them work effectively.

Moving from suspicion to curiosity

Accommodation requests are often approached with suspicion:

Does the person really need this?

Is it fair to everyone else?

Are they trying to avoid part of the job?

What if this becomes inconvenient?

A more useful starting point is curiosity:

What barrier is the employee experiencing?

What effect is it having?

Could a practical adjustment improve access and performance?

How can we trial it?

How will we know whether it is working?

This does not mean every requested adjustment will be possible in every role.

It means the conversation should be genuine rather than defensive.

If a particular request cannot be provided, the discussion should not simply end. There may be another way to address the same barrier.

Inclusion should not depend on reaching crisis point

Too often, accommodations are considered only after an employee’s performance deteriorates, they take extended leave or they reach burnout.

By then, trust may already have been damaged.

The employee may have spent months trying to communicate that something was becoming unsustainable.

Workplaces should not require visible collapse before taking an invisible barrier seriously.

Earlier support is often simpler, less costly and more effective.

An employee who asks for an adjustment is not necessarily saying:

“I cannot do this job.”

They may be saying:

“I can do this job, but this barrier is making it unnecessarily difficult.”

That difference matters.

Removing a barrier allows ability to emerge

A quieter workspace does not create concentration that other employees have been unfairly denied.

It reduces sensory input that may be interfering with one person’s ability to concentrate.

Written instructions do not make someone more intelligent.

They make important information accessible when working-memory or auditory-processing demands create a barrier.

Flexible working does not automatically reduce commitment.

It may allow somebody to work during the hours or in the environment where they can function most effectively.

An accommodation is not about lowering a person’s value or giving them an easier route.

It is about making sure an avoidable barrier does not hide their ability.

A workplace accommodation isn’t an unfair advantage.

It removes a barrier that others may not face.

When workplaces understand that distinction, inclusion becomes more than a policy.

It becomes something employees can experience in their everyday working lives.

Workplace Training, Therapy and Speaking

I deliver ADHD, autism and neurodiversity training for workplaces and professional organisations. My sessions combine research, clinical experience and my lived experience as a neurodivergent psychotherapist.

Training can support managers, HR teams and employees to better understand masking, executive functioning, sensory processing, communication, burnout and practical workplace accommodations.

I also provide tailored neurodiversity training for organisations, delivered online internationally or in person throughout Ireland.

For neurodivergent adults affected by workplace stress, masking or burnout, I provide neurodivergence-affirming therapy online and in person in Limerick.

Robert Rackley MSc MIACP
Neurodivergent Psychotherapist | ADHD & Autism Specialist | Trainer & Speaker

Linked Article and Resource Titles

• Many ADHD and Autistic Adults Have Become So Good at Coping That Nobody Realises They Are Struggling
• Being Neurodivergent: Moving Beyond Blame
• Adult ADHD Masking: When Coping Isn’t Thriving
• Neurodivergent Burnout Doesn’t Happen Suddenly—It Develops After Years of Coping
• ADHD, Autism and Neurodiversity Training for Professionals and Organisations
• Tailored Neurodiversity Training for Organisations
• Neurodivergence and Therapy Explained
• IHREC: Disability and Work
• IHREC: Disability Discrimination and the Right to Reasonable Accommodation in Employment