If you have read any of my previous articles, you will know I am a neurodiversity coach working exclusively with neurodivergent people for over 5 years. During this time, I discovered that I am also neurodivergent. Prior to this I worked with people with disabilities. If you are new to both of these areas, it isn’t what you think.

My first experience of working with disabilities was a revelation. I had a months’ notice that I would be working with this client group, and I have to admit that I panicked. I had no idea what to expect, I didn’t know anyone with a disability, or so I thought. I asked a friend who worked in care homes for the disabled to tell me all about it. I thought I would be working with the hearing impaired, sight impaired and physically impaired and was worried mostly that I was going to misunderstand people and not be able to help and support. I couldn’t be more wrong.

My friend told me all about his job, then said, the thing is Sarah, they’re still people, they are exactly like anyone else, but need a bit more support, that’s it. I’m ashamed to say that this was a revelation to me. We treat people with disabilities as something different, that have needs that require a lot of work and support. Sure, some people do need this, but not everyone, some people just need a bit of understanding from others. Anyone that is human can get this concept; you don’t need a training course on the ins and outs of disability and the support aids they need in order to live their lives. We can all understand that not everyone is the same.

After a few days on the contract however, the vast majority of people I met, you would never even know they had a disability. There wasn’t a sea of wheelchairs or white canes littering the office. Just humans, who had all sorts of ailments, the number one being Musco-skeletal ( bad back) and depression and anxiety. After a while, you kind of forgot that you were working on a contract helping people with disabilities get back into work. It felt more like helping people get back into work.

Neurodiversity isn’t that much different. Our clients come to us as they are having trouble navigating their neurodiversity and often part of the problem is the way they are treated by colleagues and managers who don’t get it. The majority of people I work with, need to work out how they can naturally be with their brains, while navigating a society that is set up with the idea that, given a certain set of circumstances, we all behave and think in the same way. Spoiler alert, we don’t. After a few days on the job, I thought, this isn’t difficult we need to educate companies what neurodiversity is and managers will get it and not threaten their staff with the sack but rather work with the person and benefit from their positives while navigating their challenges. Now after 5 years, I fully believe this is a huge task that so far, is making very slow progress.

Our clients fully benefit, don’t get me wrong, we have improved peoples’ lives and I’m not exaggerating. Once people understand that the way they think and behave is normal for them then the accompanying depression and anxiety eases, and further eases once they start using the tools that they need to or get the accommodations required. It is everyone else that is the problem.

If I hadn’t needed to find out about people with disabilities, I wouldn’t have. I knew no-one and had no experience in this area, and I am sure I would have had the exact same reaction if I had a person with disabilities working with me for the first time.

You get a bit blinded by the name of the disability or concerns around how the person will be and mostly will I get it wrong and make things worse for them and me.It is no different for people that are neurodivergent.

The term neurodiversity was originally meant as a way to reduce stigma and level the playing field but unfortunately, the word is too long, plus the number of conditions under this banner seem to be growing. If concepts are complicated, it is nigh on impossible for the general public to take things on board. The health and safety act is 52 years old this year, yet some people will still block a fire exit and trip over trailing wires, despite ANNUAL training.

So, what is the future of neurodiversity? In my opinion, people only really take things on board when it affects them directly. So here is the solution, remember my name, Sarah Bridgeman for when you need to quote in your training sessions who thought of this first.

There is a set of brain functions that affect everyone, we should move towards educating everyone about this. We can then measure the workforces’ abilities and challenges on that set of brain areas known as executive function.

Executive function is the name given to the set of brain areas that affect how we plan, organise, manage time, manage emotions, focus, amongst others. When I work with clients, helping them to manage their executive functions is the bulk of the work that I do. This is what makes the biggest difference.

Rather than train the whole workforce about a set of conditions that may never affect them, why not train them about a set of functions that affect everyone? It would simplify the whole thing and then we are not putting the onus on the one with the biggest challenges to advocate for themselves, but to normalise everyone knowing that they need to work in a certain way in order to maximise their natural brain benefits.

I believe that in a much shorter space of time, we can implement a measurement tool so everyone understands their own brain, and who amongst us isn’t interested in themselves? Staff and their managers can learn to better manage themselves and you never need to learn about any brain concepts and how they apply to others ever again.

You heard it here first, the future is to move away from the term neurodiversity which is about the few, and towards executive function which affects all.