Acas puts the number at around one in seven people in the UK who are neurodivergent. That covers ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, sensory processing differences and more. Most offices don’t account for any of it. Glass walls, fluorescent strip lights, open-plan floors and hard surfaces that bounce every sound across the room, all of it designed with one type of brain in mind.
Neurotypical staff might find it mildly irritating, but for neurodivergent employees the same environment can completely wreck a working day. So where do most employers go wrong, and what does a genuinely supportive office look like in practice?
Why the Standard Office Doesn’t Work for Everyone
Open-plan offices throw a constant stream of sensory input at you. Phones going off, conversations drifting over from four desks away, keyboard noise, random bursts of laughter. It’s not a secret that background noise makes it harder to concentrate for office workers. For someone with autism or ADHD, the effect will often be far worse.
Sensory overload is what happens when the brain can’t manage the volume of stimulation coming in. In real terms, that could mean a colleague with ADHD losing focus every single time someone walks past their desk, or an autistic team member who’s physically drained by mid-morning because the lighting and background noise are too much to block out.
And it isn’t only noise that causes problems. Bright overhead lights that flicker, strong cooking smells from a shared kitchen, cluttered desks everywhere you look, unpredictable foot traffic past your workstation, all of these pile up over the course of a day.
Sound Is the Biggest Offender
Noise comes up more than anything else in complaints about open-plan offices. Hard ceilings and bare walls let conversations carry much further than they should, and a sudden door slam or phone going off can trigger a genuine stress response, especially in neurodivergent staff. That’s not a minor inconvenience.
Ceiling-mounted acoustic panels, wall absorbers, soft furnishings and dedicated quiet zones will all help bring reverberation under control. Good office soundproofing solutions tend to treat the ceiling first because it’s the largest reflective surface, then add targeted absorption on walls and between workstations. Some offices also use sound masking systems that introduce a low-level background hum so speech doesn’t travel as far. For a neurodivergent employee, the gap between an acoustically treated space and an untreated one can mean the difference between getting through a full day and hitting burnout by lunchtime.
Lighting, Layout and the Small Things That Add Up
Sound gets talked about the most, but lighting runs a close second. Fluorescent tubes flicker at a frequency that most people won’t consciously pick up on. Neurodivergent workers often will. Swapping to LED panels or giving people task lighting at their own desks hands them more control over their immediate surroundings, which matters more than most employers realise.
Hot-desking is another pain point. Autistic employees who depend on routine and predictability can find it genuinely distressing to sit somewhere different every morning, so having a consistent workspace, or at least access to a quiet area they can retreat to, will make a real difference. Clear wayfinding and break spaces away from the main floor help too. Sometimes the simplest changes do the most: letting someone wear noise-cancelling headphones, adjusting the overhead lighting near their desk, moving them away from the kitchen or the printer, or just asking what would actually help.
A Better Office Benefits Everyone
Making an office more accessible for neurodivergent staff tends to improve conditions across the board. Quieter meeting rooms, less echo on the open floor, better lighting, more variety in workspace types. Everyone benefits from those changes, not only the people who need them most.
Acas reports that 35% of workers think their employer does a poor job of supporting neurodivergent colleagues, so there’s clearly a lot of ground to cover. But none of these adjustments need to be complicated or expensive. They just need to start with asking the people who use the space every day what actually works for them.