Summary
The Institute for Neurodiversity and Employment website will house a practical, research-informed resource library to help employers and partners implement neuroinclusive hiring and workplace practices.
Resources include:
- The Autism@Work Playbook (2021)
- The Employee Engagement & Growth Series (2023): with accompanying Manager’s Quick Guides on neuroinclusive culture, organizational change, manager transitions, career advancement, and psychological safety
- The Neurodiversity@Work Playbook: Federal Edition (2024).
Together, these publications offer ready-to-use tools that translate evidence and stakeholder expertise into actionable guidance for strengthening the Washington neurodiversity and employment ecosystem.
Playbooks
The Neurodiversity@Work Playbooks are research-based, practice-informed guides led by Hala Annabi to help organizations design, launch, and strengthen neuroinclusive employment initiatives. They synthesize lessons learned and promising practices from employers, federal agencies, neurodivergent self-advocates, and ecosystem partners, translating real-world experience into actionable guidance.
The Autism@Work Playbook is the product of a collaborative research project, Autism-Ready Workplace: Creating and Sustaining Autism Hiring Initiatives, led by Dr. Hala Annabi, an associate professor at the University of Washington Information School. To create this guide, the ACCESS-IT Research Group at the Information School studied the Autism @ Work programs of four leading employers: Microsoft, SAP, JPMorgan Chase and EY.
In their research, Dr. Annabi and her team systematically examined how the firms established their programs and how they sustain them. The researchers analyzed key organizational strategies, employment and resourcing models, and hiring and onboarding practices. In their analysis, the researchers distilled best practices and developed this guide for other organizations to use to get their programs started.
This is the second edition of the Playbook, including a new chapter on remote recruiting and onboarding.
The Neurodiversity @ Work Playbook: Employee Engagement & Growth Series is a collaborative project led by Dr. Hala Annabi, an associate professor at the University of Washington Information School in collaboration with the Neurodiversity@Work Employer Roundtable.
This series augments the original Playbook by focusing on best practices and lessons learned related to supporting growth and advancement. This series includes research-based content combined with best practices and lessons learned from over 20 employers including neurotypical and neurodivergent program leads.
Organizations interested in enhancing their culture to be more neuroinclusive will benefit from the guidance provided throughout the entire series. Embracing neurodiversity in the workplace can help organizations tap into the unique perspectives, skills, and talents of neurodiverse employees, leading to increased creativity, innovation, and success.
Issue 1: Cultivating Neuroinclusive Culture
Issue 2: Neuroinclusive Organizational Change Management
Issue 3: Neuroinclusive Transition to a New Manager
Issue 4: Neuroinclusive Career Advancement
Issue 5: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace
Manager’s Quick Guide to Neuroinclusion
Manager’s Quick Guide to Organizational Change
Manager’s Quick Guide to Manager Change
The Neurodiversity@Work Playbook Federal Edition is the product of a collaborative research project, the Neurodiversity and Employment Initiative: Initiating and Scaling Neurodiversity@Work Initiatives across Private and Public Organizations, led by Dr. Hala Annabi, an associate professor at the University of Washington Information School.
This edition of the Neurodiversity@Work Playbook reflects the collaborative efforts of the University of Washington Information School, MITRE, and Melwood. The guidelines and lessons learned synthesized in the Federal Edition of the Playbook draw on the original Autism@Work Playbook; lessons learned from leading Neurodiversity@Work private organizations and Federal agencies; Melwood and MITRE’s experience; perspectives of neurodivergent self-advocates and professionals from various Federal agencies; and the knowledge and experience of leading neuroinclusion external partners Beyond-Impact, Neurodiversity in the Workplace, and Potentia Workforce.
Toolkits
The Institute’s toolkits provide free, online, ready-to-use training modules and practical resources that help libraries build autism-inclusive early literacy services and more welcoming customer experiences. The Autism-Ready Libraries Toolkit is already published and accessible, with self-paced modules plus resources like sensory audit checklists and storytime lesson plans to support implementation in public library settings. A Neuroinclusive Libraries Toolkit will be published this month, expanding this work beyond autism to support broader neuroinclusion across library contexts.
Examples of libraries and library organizations referencing the training include:
- Ohio Ready to Read
- The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)
- The Connecticut State Library (LibGuide)
- The South Carolina State Library (LibGuide); WebJunction also highlights early uptake of toolkit strategies in library programming.
- WebJunction also highlights early uptake of toolkit strategies in library programming.
Our goal for developing the Autism-Ready Libraries Toolkit is to build public libraries’ capacity to serve families with autistic children nationwide. The purpose of this toolkit is to empower youth-serving librarians and library staff with the early literacy training and programming materials they need to provide autism-inclusive early literacy services.
Our toolkit website contains free online training modules and resources for youth-serving librarians and library staff in public libraries who would like to better serve families with autistic children. The Autism-Ready Libraries Toolkit can also be used by anyone with an interest in autism inclusion and inclusive early literacy practices, including school librarians, library managers and administrators, parents and caregivers, community leaders, and teachers.
We hope you will benefit from and enjoy the materials we prepared. Take your time exploring all the modules and resources. We tried to make the content as accessible and interactive as possible.
Our toolkit training modules address the following:
- Autism acceptance and inclusion in the public library
- Adaptive customer services for autistic children and their families
- Autism-inclusive early literacy services for autistic children and their families
Our toolkit resources provide support for:
- Identifying and addressing common barriers in your library for autistic children and their families
- Creating and promoting autism-inclusive early literacy programs
- Conducting outreach activities and beginning partnerships with community organizations
- Providing information and resources on autism
- Advocating for autism-inclusive early literacy services at your library
We hope that the Autism-Ready Libraries Toolkit will be a foundational starting point for you in your journey to learn more about autism-inclusive library services and early literacy services. We encourage you to continue to learn from autistic advocates and the autism community to grow your practices, especially those you serve in your area.
The Neurodiversity @ Work Playbook: Employee Engagement & Growth Series is a collaborative project led by Dr. Hala Annabi, an associate professor at the University of Washington Information School in collaboration with the Neurodiversity@Work Employer Roundtable.
This series augments the original Playbook by focusing on best practices and lessons learned related to supporting growth and advancement. This series includes research-based content combined with best practices and lessons learned from over 20 employers including neurotypical and neurodivergent program leads.
Organizations interested in enhancing their culture to be more neuroinclusive will benefit from the guidance provided throughout the entire series. Embracing neurodiversity in the workplace can help organizations tap into the unique perspectives, skills, and talents of neurodiverse employees, leading to increased creativity, innovation, and success.
Recorded Talks
Explore a curated set of recorded talks featuring Dr. Hala Annabi that translate neurodiversity-at-work research into practical guidance on scaling initiatives, strengthening organizational supports, and implementing straightforward neuroinclusive practices. Spanning employers, federal and national security contexts, higher education, and libraries, these videos connect directly to the Institute’s playbooks and toolkits.