10 Practical ADHD Reasonable Adjustments / Accommodations

However, many people with ADHD are unclear on what reasonable adjustments could be of help to them, and most of the examples found online are not relevant to people with ADHD. In fact, many of the reasonable adjustments that are spoken about for ADHD can be considered to making matters worse, rather than being helpful (not far off being requests to be micro-managed).

The challenge is that while some of the reasonable adjustments suitable for people with ADHD are equipment related, many are not – they are knowledge related. But making it all the more difficult, asking for these knowledge related accommodations may feel awkward, because in some minds there will be harsh judgement around what the request says about the person asking. That’s because of the lack of understanding of ADHD, which leads to a lack of acceptance.

Here is a list of 10 practical reasonable adjustments, that people with ADHD can ask for from their employers. Numbers 1 – 3 are more clearcut requests, while numbers 4 – 10 are to do with interactions, asking for accommodations from others.

1. Awareness training

This is the big one. With the right type of awareness training, there will be less judgement when it comes to all other adjustments listed below. But this training needs to be condition-specific – it cannot be a short overview of neurodivergence in general, it has to be about ADHD and go beyond the core traits. Such training must look at how traits manifest, how they impact people, how ADHD brains differ from non-ADHD brains, and how there are strengths associated with ADHD as well as challenges.

Reasonable accommodation: ADHD (condition-specific) training for managers and colleagues of ADHD employees.

2. Documented processes

This is a more commonly known request for people with ADHD. It helps mitigate issues around working memory (which, it must be stated, arises due to a difference in the way information is processed, rather than a deficit). Employees with ADHD might be shown a multi-step process which others will be able to remember days, weeks, or even months later. When the ADHD employee returns to carry out the process they will likely need to ask to be shown it again. It’s a relatively easy work-a-round for simple processes where the employee can write down the steps themselves, but for more complex (and sometimes ever-changing) processes, perhaps requiring a flowchart, then this should be provided for the employee to consult at a later date. Alternatively, someone with a good understanding of the process could make time to sit with the employee, who would then sketch it out themselves, asking questions to ensure they’ve got everything covered.

Reasonable accommodation: Processes to be provided in writing so that they can be referred back to.

3. Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) accommodations

It’s very common for people with ADHD to also have APD. This presents as a challenge with hearing, but it’s actually to do with processing. There are a number of impacts from this:

• Delayed information: For example when a colleague says something and the ADHD person replies “What?”, the colleague will then begin to repeat what they said only for the ADHD person to answer the original statement. They heard it, they just didn’t know they’d heard it because it takes a little longer to process what was heard.
• External distractions: This is where other things happening around or nearby the person is pulling their attention away from what’s being said. Most commonly this will be background noise, but it can also be changes in lighting, temperature, movements, or many other things. All people can have trouble ‘hearing’ when there’s background noise, for example in a busy open-plan office, but people with ADHD/APD will experience this to a much greater extent. It is not uncommon for two people to be talking, both with similar hearing and volume, but while one can hear everything fine due to being able to automatically filter out much of the background noise, the person with ADHD will struggle to keep track of the words, being unable to filter out the external distractions.
• Internal distractions: This can happen even when there is no background noise, or anything else externally distracting. It’s all down to how the ADHD mind can often be consumed by ‘racing thoughts‘. These thoughts are not controllable, and can happen while a person is attempting to listen. Their attention is being drawn elsewhere because one thought will trigger more thoughts, and so on. This is particularly more likely to happen when the person is stressed or worried about something.

It’s important to state here, that not everyone with ADHD is affected in the same way, and some will even find that the busier their environment, the more they can concentrate… if things are too quiet they can find themselves being more likely to experience internal distractions without anything snapping them out of that.

Also, there is a reason why listening to music has a different effect – external noise that is distracting is ‘unpredictable’ noise, where-as predictable noise like music doesn’t pull the mind away to alert it to other sounds.

Reasonable accommodations: Providing a workspace with a less busy background, allowing the employee to work from home, providing earphones/earplugs to block out noise, and low gain hearing aids are said to be of assistance by applying distance and angle based sound filtering.

4. Mentioning when something is relevant in a meeting, if not already engaged

When someone with ADHD is in a meeting, whether in-person or video conferencing, there are a number of factors affecting their attention. How long is the meeting, and how long has it been going for so far? What is being spoken about and how involved is the person in that task/topic? How long since the last change of topic or task? And most importantly, who is speaking to who else? If the person with ADHD is being spoken to, or are involved in the project being discussed then they are likely engaged enough to maintain the required level of concentration. However, if others are discussing something between themselves, which the ADHD person has little to do with, then the person with ADHD is likely to dissociate (a severe form of ‘zoning out’ which is common with ADHD). This happens without the person realising it, and can often be to do with a part of the conversation. For example, where something said will send the person into a problem-solving mode of thoughts – which can be useful in some instances, but results in them missing information being discussed.

Reasonable accommodation: A request to anyone else in meetings, to give a gentle nudge to the person with ADHD if something important and relevant to them is brought up – to check with them that they heard it, along with a willingness to repeat it they did not. The person with ADHD won’t be able to ask for it to be repeated because they won’t be aware they’ve missed it.

An example:

Scenario: a meeting when something has been getting discussed. Steve is present, but hasn’t been engaged directly for some minutes. Something comes up, which it’s important Steve is aware of.

Colleague: “Steve, did you catch that?”, or, “One for you Steve?”

Steve: “Oops, sorry I missed that!”

Steve’s attention is now on whatever it is, and can focus on what he needs to know.

The above should not be all that controversial, but it is. An employee with ADHD will likely feel uncomfortable asking for such a reasonable accommodation, but they shouldn’t. As awareness and understanding of conditions like ADHD increases, people will be able to feel less judged (and be less judged) when asking for an accommodation like this.

5. Understanding of reminder requests (e.g. where a file is stored)

People with ADHD have working memory challenges. That’s not to say their memory is bad in every way, they may well have excellent memories in certain areas (especially to do with things in which they were fully engaged). But processes and ‘little things’ can be problematic. For example, it’s common for people with ADHD to forget where things are stored. This can be frustrating for others, who may resent being frequently asked where to find a particular file, or item. Writing it down can be useful but often results in the person with ADHD not remembering where to find what was written down – or that they did write it down at all. And, as the number of files or items needing to be accessed mount up over periods of time, this can become more and more challenging.

Reasonable accommodation: Colleagues of the ADHD employee could be informed about this aspect of the condition, and that they will likely need some reminders from time to time, on where things are, or what system to use, where to find the menu options for e.g. submitting an expense.

6. Understanding of recall triggers (e.g. reminders of previous conversations)

Staying with working memory challenges, people with ADHD who have had conversations (even recently) will have had a lot else going through their very busy minds since, and often need a clue or two before making the required connections about a previous exchange. There might well have been a meeting about a task earlier that day, and when approached to discuss it further, the person with ADHD will be scanning their minds to work out what is being referred to – they might well make the wrong connection at first and start replying about a different conversation from that day or that meeting.

Reasonable accommodation: Much like others in this list, is for colleagues to be made aware that a little patience and a bit more information might be needed, on what was discussed. Once given, that will be followed with “Ah, that, yes…” once the correct connection is made, with the related thoughts being triggered and moving front-of-mind.

7. Immediate responses

Just as with the above, part of the way that these working memory challenges manifest is to do with information retrieval, or recall. Whilst conversation recall may require a prompt, so too do answers to questions. If someone with ADHD is already talking about a subject, task, or whatever they might be working on, then the answers to related questions will likely be readily available when asked. But if asked a question which is not related to what they’re currently doing, or if asked a question seemingly ‘out of the blue’, then it will take a few moments for the ADHD person to run through things in their mind. They will, just as anybody might, feel under pressure to answer quickly – to demonstrate they are knowledgeable, show confidence in their views – but really they will likely be having a bit of a panic internally while they search their minds and connect the required dots. This may result in a bit of fumbling with words, or showing signs of confusion. But often it will be the need to answer a question with a question, to clarify what is being asked about so that they can filter through and connect the right dots.

Reasonable accommodation: With being asked questions ‘out of the blue’, it’s a matter of informing people that ADHD minds are so filled with thoughts, it may be necessary to wait a few moments while those thoughts are filtered – or that it would be helpful being able to double check some of the context around the question.

8. Clarifications and context provision

When it comes to ‘connecting the dots’, this can result in challenges when a person with ADHD is being given direction, or being told of expectations. The reason being, unbeknownst to either party, they will sometimes have a number of different dots to connect. Where people without ADHD have an automatic filter of information, people with ADHD do not – and that means extra information gets pulled in. They can end up with ‘too many dots’ and must therefore try to organise them. Having these extra dots can be great when it comes to out-of-the-box thinking for problem solving or getting creative, but it can also cause overwhelm and confusion in communication.

A common occurrence is when people with ADHD are in a room full of others and all are being given instruction, they will likely be looking around them and wondering how everyone else seems to ‘get it’ when they don’t. The reason is because people with ADHD will often see multiple potential meanings for anything that has been said. This can lead to them needing to ask a lot of questions, which may well be deemed ‘stupid questions’ with obvious answers (to others), but it’s important to remember that people with ADHD often need to narrow down the possibilities of what is being instructed, getting clarification so that they can be sure they are aligned with everyone else, and the expectations.

Reasonable accommodation: Managers and colleagues knowing that the ADHD person’s brain works differently is not enough, they need to know how it works differently in order to help. In this case, that means being aware that some things which might be deemed obvious to others are not obvious to the ADHD employee (just as some things that are obvious to people with ADHD are not obvious to others), and they might need to answer some questions without judging the person for what those questions are – being patient and providing the level of detail requested of them.

9. Presenting skills – tangents, and too much detail

One of the more well-known of ADHD traits is ‘going off on a tangent’. This is something that can happen in communication socially, but also when providing answers and explanations at work. The are a number of ways in which this can create problems – a common one being when asked a question by someone who would like a short and simple, direct answer. The person with ADHD however, will tend to go into far more detail than is necessary, giving justifications, caveats, rationales, and context for their answer. These answers can then end up being overly-complex, and the person asking has to go through their own process of narrowing down. With ADHD it’s not just a matter of too much information going in, but also too much information coming out).

Another way this can interfere with careers is in more formal communications like reporting or presenting. For example, if a person with ADHD gives a presentation to others in their organisation, they may be presenting with ideas, numbers, reasons, etc… the audience will often want a brief overview, or executive summary. If they want extra detail, they will ask for it. But brief is not easily achieved by the person with ADHD. Even if they manage to be brief in some areas, chances are always high that at some point they will either get a bit too passionate or excited about an idea, or a bit too convinced that the person to whom they are presenting must be given context they don’t really need. And so, in the middle of the presentation they will start to explain the history of some concept in order to increase the listener’s understanding, because they felt that was important for them to know.

Much of this all comes from growing up feeling misunderstood. Many people with ADHD become obsessed with getting their point across, hoping for people to understand them, and mistakenly believing that the more information delivered, the higher the chances they will be understood. It also explains why they often seem to be in such a hurry when presenting, because they’ve learned that much of the time people will make assumptions about what they’re saying, cut them off, or end the conversation before they get all of the information across. So they speak quickly, in an attempt to get as much across as possible while they have the time.

Reasonable accommodation: People who work with someone that is ADHD need to know that this is part of the condition, and that it has flip-sides. Those same busy brains that go into too much detail when it’s not necessary to do so, also go into extra detailed thinking when it comes to troubleshooting. That same ‘too many dots’ is of benefit in situations where the more dots, the better.

10. Authoritativeness in leadership roles

People with ADHD are known to ‘wear their hearts on their sleeves’, which can be viewed as a positive quality by some. Unfortunately though, there is an antiquated perception that people must be ‘serious’ in order to be capable, and to be ‘authoritative’ in order to be a good manager. Some people with ADHD may well be able to mask well enough in these areas, but many don’t. Due to a mixture of curiosity, excitement, impulsivity, and authenticity, adults with ADHD will often be perceived as ‘child-like’, which commonly leads to them being underestimated, and undermined at work. This is also part of the reason the adults with ADHD are four times more likely to experience workplace bullying than their non-ADHD counterparts. All of this very much comes down to how people with ADHD are seen by others in the signals they give off about themselves. Often, they will not come across as confident as others, which is partially due to growing up struggling to fit in (it is estimated that by the age of 10, children with ADHD will have received 20,000 more negative feedback comments that children without ADHD) – and this means it’s difficult for them to self-advocate, or project the kind of confidence that many might expect in working environments. It leads also to being a people pleaser, which in turn may lead to others misreading them as not as capable.

Reasonable accommodation: This comes down to encouraging a better company-wide understanding of different neurotypes, and how neurodivergent people should not be judged by neurotypical expectations. It means others learning to keep an open mind about the differences in the way ADHD people may come across, and understanding that their struggles with showing confidence is not an accurate way to measure their ability.

Considerations

For list items 4 to 10, you can see how worried someone with ADHD might be about asking for these accommodations. For example with number three, many would be concerned that making this request is akin to telling your employer that you’re ignoring things, leading to the questioning of your ability to do your job. But this is because there is not yet wide enough recognition of what ADHD is and why it exists as a disability in EqA10. Most people, including employers and colleagues, will not be aware of that someone with ADHD cannot control when their attention in the same way that others do, they may not understand how it is that a person can be fully attentive with some things but not others, because they will not have learned about how ADHD has an interest based nervous system. They may think that someone could force themselves to ‘be interested’ in something, not realising that this must be innate interest due to brain chemistry. Just as one cannot force themselves to fall in love, or choose which sex they are attracted to, it’s not down to conscious decision-making.

It must be pointed out in this, that there are flipsides to ADHD traits, so that employers understand that in providing reasonable adjustments to people with ADHD they are not just doing so to abide by the law, they are also enabling them to apply their strengths where needed – they are ensuring that the creative and innovative, problem solving minds that are so common with ADHD people are being used to benefit the organisation, instead of being spent on stress and worry while mitigating, masking, and trying to navigate the workplace ‘norms’.