Designing neuroinclusive spaces

Photo by Anna Tarazevich

Recently, I went to the ‘Design and Disability’ exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London. It was fascinating! The exhibition examined the “contributions of disabled, deaf, and neurodivergent people and communities to design history and contemporary culture.”

From the moment I stepped into the exhibition space I felt welcomed and included, despite being a person without disabilities. The purpose, intent and design of the exhibition was conveyed to the visitor in multiple formats. There was a notice on the wall, a film with audio, subtitles, and narrated in British Sign Language. In addition, there was a map that was annotated in Braille and showed the various ways of engaging with the exhibits at each location.  I particularly liked the notice that warned non-disabled people to witness the content even though they may not have experienced the acts of discrimination as an act of solidarity.

This introduction prompted me to think about how well do we welcome people into a space we are hosting.

Welcoming others into our curated spaces

Whenever we encounter someone there is an opportunity to welcome them into relationship with us, whether that is for minutes, hours, months or years. When we adopt neuroaffirming practices we become more inclusive of others. It takes intentional, focused and sustained effort. However, when we do, we create new neural pathways that, over time, will become our embodied way of being.

Consider the various opportunities that we have to be welcoming from formal or scripted occasions, meetings, townhalls, webinars, workshops, offsites to chance encounters in the office, a message sent on Slack, etc.

Planned Events

Provide information in advance

Planned occasions give us the possibility of designing them for neuroinclusion. We can think about the purpose of the event, the desired outcomes, agenda and flow. With this forethought we can provide clarity to the participants so that they know what to expect and can prepare. For example, because social interactions don’t come naturally, many neurodivergent individuals rehearse various scenarios and how they will respond so there is less likelihood that they are caught off guard.

Offsites are often seen as a wonderful chance to escape the daily pressures of work to explore significant topics, such as, team dynamics or envisioning the future. Whilst this is true for most attendees, it can create anxiety for neurodivergent colleagues who are required to travel to an unfamiliar environment, engage with colleagues for extended periods of time, find foods that meet their needs, and so on. Careful planning to accommodate these differences is required.

Some neurodivergent individuals can become overwhelmed in crowds, so travelling at peak times is challenging so planning start and end times that minimises this is important. Finding ways that allow participants to familiarise themselves with the venue helps allay concerns related to being somewhere new. Moreover, using rooms where the ambience, sound, lighting, textures etc. have been reviewed with neuroinclusion in mind is important to prevent sensory overwhelm.

Another source of angst can be deciphering the dress code. There tend to be unwritten rules about what form of dress is acceptable and stepping outside of these is frowned upon. Neurodivergent people who are sensitive to seams, labels, fabrics, tight waistbands, may find themselves choosing between the physiological distress they feel when conforming to the work ‘uniform’ and wearing clothes that are comfortable but seem unsuitable to their colleagues. Being invited to wear attire that they feel good in would go a long way to helping neurodivergent colleagues feeling more at ease.

Create and reinforce explicit ground rules

Another consideration for welcoming people to a meeting is how individuals are expected to conduct themselves. Explicit ground rules provide guidance on the acceptable behaviours. These should embrace different ways of being, sensing, processing and communicating, so that neurodivergent colleagues do not feel that they need to censor themselves or mask who they are.

Recognising that some neurodivergent individuals have difficulty knowing when it is socially appropriate to make their points and may be more direct and literal than the average person enables the leader to role model how to receive different contributions and  provide equal space and airtime for all.

In virtual meetings, if participants have their camera off, there is suspicion amongst the other attendees that they are not fully present. A neuroinclusive approach is to allow participants to choose whether to have their cameras on or off. This is because many neurodivergent individuals process every stimulus with more intensity than average and thus find it hard to concentrate on what is being said if they also need to focus visually.

Informal Contact

It can be more difficult to adopt neuroaffirming behaviours when there is a chance encounter, particularly if we do not realise that they are neurodivergent. We may find ourselves making assumptions about them and judging them unfavourably. For example, if they interrupt us to make a point, we may think that they are rude. Whereas they may need to express their point or lose it. Their communication style is simply different to ours. If we embrace these differences, we can gain new perspectives about the world.

I believe that we can develop neuroaffirming behaviours by adopting a mindset of acceptance of difference and reflecting on tricky encounters to form hypotheses for what might be happening at a deeper level within ourselves and the other person. This will enable us to learn how to welcome others as they are rather than how we expect them to be.  

Designing Welcoming Spaces

When we employ neuroaffirming behaviours we can welcome neurodivergent and neurotypical colleagues to join us in spaces that ensure that they feel that they belong and not have to do the work to suppress who they are to conform to arbitrary social customs and norms.

© 2026 by  Joan van den Brink is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International