Based on real-life stories, a new report focuses on supporting
neurodivergent individuals in navigating their careers and outlines strategies
to help them thrive in the workplace
ACCA’s latest report
‘Neurodiversity in accountancy: navigating your career’ says the narrative
around neurodiversity is changing. Organisations are beginning to recognise the
significant strengths of neurodivergent individuals and the contributions they
make to the workplace. More importantly, neurodivergent professionals
themselves are reclaiming their own stories, reshaping expectations of what
workplaces should provide, and proving that when the environment changes rather
than the person, everyone benefits.
This Neurodiversity
Celebration week, stories and insights from neurodivergent accountancy
professionals navigating the workplace are in the spotlight. The research explores
not just individual experiences, but the conditions that enable success. The
report also shares some of the practical strategies organisations can adopt to
support neurodivergent employees better, as well as advice for individuals
themselves.
The report identifies
five key areas where individual action creates conditions for success and
reflects on some of the strategies explained by our interviewees in this
research:
- Understanding your own cognitive profile: for
many neurodivergent professionals, formal diagnosis provides
transformative reframing.
- Making strategic disclosure decisions:
disclosure is not an obligation – it’s a choice.
- Leveraging technology: the right technology
can amplify your capabilities and make you strategically resourceful.
- Advocating individualised support: the most
effective workplace support is co-created, not prescribed.
- Building your own personal support system: you
can’t control organisational culture, but you can build a personal system
that enables you to thrive.
Jamie Lyon, Global Head of Skills, Sectors and Technology at ACCA, said: ‘The narrative is moving from ‘what can neurodivergent people do for organisations?’ towards ‘what systems need to change to enable everyone to work effectively?’ This reframe matters because it shifts responsibility: individuals should not need to adapt to the workplace – the workplace needs to be designed better. But the gap is still far too wide.’
Tania Martin, Neuro-inclusion Consultant,
Trainer and Speaker at PegSquared said, ‘As someone who has navigated my own career with
ADHD, I know how much a small change in environment or approach can transform
someone's working day. This research is a reminder that neuro-inclusion is not
about grand gestures - it's about the practical steps that make a real
difference to real people, right now.’
The stories and insights in this report paint a clear
picture: neurodivergent professionals bring immense value to the accountancy
profession, but their success depends on a fundamental shift in how we approach
inclusion. Moving from awareness to action requires work at both organisational
and individual levels, with neither alone being sufficient.
The question isn’t whether workplaces will become more
neuroinclusive – it’s how quickly, and which organisations will lead and which
will fall behind.
Read the report here.