Ep154 - Neurodiversity at Work with Aron Mercer

In today's episode, we welcome Aron Mercer, a researcher and practitioner focused on neurodiversity at work whose doctoral research examines lived experiences of autistic, dyslexic, and ADHD employees and how disclosure and workplace culture affect belonging, wellbeing and performance.

Aron explains neurodiversity as a strengths-based concept coined by Judy Singer, notes it affects an estimated 15–20% of people, and discusses differences in presentations for women and girls. He describes common workplace barriers including stigma, lack of manager confidence, masking, burnout and return-to-office tensions, and why disclosure is complex across the employee lifecycle.

The conversation highlights strengths (pattern recognition, integrity, creativity, crisis clarity, visual thinking), critiques overemphasis on “generalists,” and outlines practices like clear expectations, focus-friendly environments, inclusive assessments, normalisation, and better use of employee resource groups and universal design.

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Resources:

Connect with Aron Mercer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aron-mercer-0718197/

Xceptional Academy: https://xceptionalacademy.org.au/

Dr Judy Singer: https://provost.harvard.edu/people/judith-d-singer