How Do I Know What Accommodations I Need? (ADHD & Autism Self-Assessment)
A practical guide to understanding your neurodivergent work style so you can finally ask for what you actually need
When I was diagnosed with ADHD at 32, after spending a decade in professional environments that never quite "fit," I felt both relief and apprehension.
The relief came from finally understanding why I struggled with things my colleagues seemed to do effortlessly. The apprehension? That came from a much harder question: Now what?
I knew my brain worked differently. I could feel it every day—the way I'd hyperfocus on interesting projects but couldn't start boring ones, how open offices made my brain feel like static, the exhaustion that came from trying to appear "normal" in meetings.
But when it came to actually requesting accommodations or building systems that worked for me, I was lost. How do you ask for help when you don't even know what you need?
If you're reading this, you might be in that same place. You know something isn't working. You know you're neurodivergent—maybe recently diagnosed, maybe self-identified, maybe still figuring it out. But translating that knowledge into actual workplace changes feels impossible.
Here's what I've learned after years of trial and error, and after supporting dozens of neurodivergent professionals: You can't request the right accommodations until you understand your unique neurodivergent profile.
This isn't about fitting into neurotypical expectations. It's about identifying how your brain actually works—both your strengths and your challenges—so you can build a work life that honors who you are.
Why Most Neurodivergent Professionals Struggle to Identify What They Need
There are three main reasons why figuring out your accommodation needs feels so hard:
1. You've spent years masking
If you're like most neurodivergent adults, you've developed elaborate systems to hide your differences. You've learned to fake eye contact, suppress stims, force yourself to sit still in meetings, and pretend you understood instructions when you didn't.
Masking is exhausting, but it's also confusing. When you've spent decades hiding your authentic responses to the world, it becomes nearly impossible to identify what you actually need. You've lost touch with your natural patterns because you've been suppressing them for so long.
2. You're comparing yourself to neurotypical standards
Most workplace advice assumes a neurotypical brain. "Just use a planner." "Break tasks into smaller steps." "Set clear boundaries."
But when that advice doesn't work for you—when planners become anxiety-inducing black holes and "breaking tasks down" somehow makes everything feel more overwhelming—you assume you're the problem. You don't realize that you need different strategies entirely, not just "better" execution of neurotypical ones.
3. You don't have a framework for understanding your cognitive style
Most of us were never taught to think about how our brains work. We know we struggle with certain things and excel at others, but we've never systematically mapped our cognitive strengths, energy patterns, and sensory needs.
Without that framework, requesting accommodations feels like shooting in the dark. You might ask for something that doesn't actually help, or miss the accommodations that would make the biggest difference.
The Framework: Mapping Your Neurodivergent Work Profile
Here's the process I use with every neurodivergent professional I work with. It's the same framework that helped me go from drowning in workplace expectations to building a career that actually works with my ADHD brain.
Step 1: Identify Your Cognitive Strengths (Not Just Skills)
Most people, when asked about their strengths, list their job skills: "I'm good at coding," "I'm organized," "I'm a strong communicator."
But that's not what we're after here. We need to identify your cognitive strengths—the ways your neurodivergent brain gives you advantages.
Here are some common neurodivergent cognitive strengths:
Hyperfocus ability - You can dive deep into interesting work and produce exceptional results when engaged
Pattern recognition - You notice connections and patterns others miss
Creative problem-solving - You approach challenges from unexpected angles
Attention to detail - You catch errors and inconsistencies others overlook
Intense curiosity - You develop deep expertise in areas of interest
Authentic communication - You're direct and honest, cutting through workplace politics
Systems thinking - You understand how complex systems work and interact
Take a moment to reflect: Which of these resonate with you? What have colleagues or managers specifically praised about your work? When do you feel most energized and effective?
Real-world example: Sara, a software developer with autism, initially listed only technical skills as her strengths. After deeper reflection, she recognized that her pattern recognition abilities, exceptional memory for systems, and attention to detail were actually her most valuable workplace assets. This clarity helped her seek roles emphasizing these strengths rather than positions requiring constant context-switching and high social demands.
Your cognitive strengths aren't just nice-to-haves. They're the foundation for building a career that honors your neurodivergent brain.
Step 2: Conduct an Energy Audit
Here's something most workplace advice ignores: neurodivergent professionals don't just have "good days" and "bad days." We have very specific patterns around what drains our energy and what restores it.
Understanding these patterns is crucial for identifying the accommodations that will actually help.
What typically drains neurodivergent energy:
Sensory overload (noise, bright lights, strong smells, visual clutter)
Social performance (meetings, networking, small talk, forced collaboration)
Context switching (jumping between tasks or projects)
Unclear expectations (ambiguous instructions, shifting priorities)
Mask maintenance (suppressing stims, forcing eye contact, monitoring your behavior)
Cognitive overwhelm (too many decisions, complex social dynamics)
What typically restores neurodivergent energy:
Deep work time (uninterrupted focus on engaging tasks)
Sensory regulation (quiet spaces, movement breaks, preferred lighting)
Structured routines (predictable schedules, clear expectations)
Authentic interaction (being yourself without masking)
Special interests (engaging with topics you find genuinely interesting)
Physical movement (walking, stretching, stimming)
Here's the critical question: Look at your typical workday. Where are your biggest energy drains?
This is where your accommodation needs live. If you're being drained by open office noise, you need acoustic accommodations. If context-switching is killing you, you need task batching and schedule control. If meetings exhaust you, you need preparation time and alternatives to video calls.
Real-world example: Marcus, a marketing manager with ADHD, realized that his 3pm energy crash wasn't random laziness—it consistently followed back-to-back morning meetings. Once he identified this pattern, he requested one meeting-free morning per week and scheduled his most demanding creative work for that time. His productivity doubled, and he stopped feeling like a failure by mid-afternoon.
Step 3: Map Your Environmental Sensitivities
Sensory needs aren't just about autism, though autistic individuals often have pronounced sensory profiles. Many ADHD adults also experience sensory sensitivities, and understanding yours is crucial for workplace success.
Common workplace sensory challenges:
Auditory: Office chatter, phone calls, keyboard clicking, fluorescent lights buzzing
Visual: Bright overhead lighting, cluttered spaces, multiple monitors, movement in peripheral vision
Tactile: Uncomfortable chairs, restrictive clothing, certain fabrics, temperature extremes
Olfactory: Perfume, food smells, cleaning products, air quality
Vestibular: Remaining seated for long periods, lack of movement breaks
The key insight: Your sensory needs aren't preferences. They're requirements for optimal functioning.
When your sensory environment is wrong, it's not just uncomfortable—it actively prevents you from doing your best work. Your brain is spending cognitive resources managing sensory input instead of focusing on your actual job.
What makes you physically uncomfortable at work? What environmental factors leave you drained by the end of the day? What changes immediately improve your focus and energy?
Step 4: Identify Your Executive Function Patterns
Executive function challenges show up differently for everyone. Understanding your specific patterns helps you request targeted accommodations rather than generic "organization help."
Common executive function patterns:
Time blindness: You lose track of time, struggle to estimate how long tasks will take, and frequently miss deadlines despite your best intentions.
Initiation difficulty: You know what you need to do but can't seem to start, especially on boring or ambiguous tasks.
Working memory challenges: You forget instructions, lose track of what you were doing, or struggle to hold multiple pieces of information in mind.
Decision fatigue: You become overwhelmed by choices and struggle with prioritization.
Task switching difficulty: Moving between tasks or projects feels cognitively expensive and reduces your overall productivity.
Planning paralysis: You struggle to break large projects into steps or become overwhelmed by planning before you even start.
Which of these patterns show up most consistently in your work? When do you feel most stuck or frustrated?
Understanding your executive function profile helps you request specific accommodations: project management support, external deadline systems, written instructions, dedicated focus time, or task batching.
Three Quick Wins You Can Implement Today
You don't need to wait for formal accommodations to start honoring your neurodivergent work style. Here are three changes you can make right now:
Quick Win #1: Identify Your Top 3 Energy Drains
Take a piece of paper (or open a note on your phone) and write down the three biggest energy drains in your current work situation. Be specific:
Not: "Meetings are exhausting"
Better: "Video meetings where I have to keep my camera on for more than 30 minutes drain me completely"
Once you've identified them, brainstorm one small change you could make for each. These don't have to be formal accommodation requests—they can be personal strategies:
Turn off your camera during longer meetings (or join via phone)
Take a 5-minute sensory break between back-to-back meetings
Use noise-canceling headphones during focus work
Quick Win #2: Experiment With One Environmental Change
Pick one sensory element that bothers you at work and make one small change this week:
Bring headphones for focus time
Adjust your monitor brightness or add a desk lamp
Request to sit in a quieter area (or work from home on high-focus days)
Bring a fidget tool or stress ball for meetings
Notice how this change affects your energy and focus. If it helps, that's valuable information about your accommodation needs.
Quick Win #3: Track One Pattern for One Week
Choose one executive function pattern you suspect affects your work—time blindness, initiation difficulty, or task switching, for example.
For one week, simply notice when it shows up:
What time of day?
What types of tasks?
What else is happening (lots of meetings, high stress, after lunch)?
You're not trying to fix anything yet. You're just gathering data about your actual patterns so you can make informed decisions about what accommodations would actually help.
From Self-Knowledge to Accommodation Requests
Here's what most people get wrong about workplace accommodations: they think the accommodation itself is the goal.
It's not.
The goal is to build a work environment where your neurodivergent brain can actually function at its best. Accommodations are just tools to get there.
Once you understand your neurodivergent profile—your cognitive strengths, energy patterns, sensory needs, and executive function challenges—you can start making intentional requests that actually work.
You might realize you need:
Flexible work hours to align with your natural energy rhythms
Written instructions instead of verbal-only communication
Quiet workspace or remote work options for deep focus
Advance notice for meetings so you can prepare
Permission to move, stim, or take breaks as needed
Task batching instead of constant context switching
Clear, measurable expectations instead of ambiguous goals
But you can't request these things effectively until you know yourself well enough to identify them.
What Happens When You Finally Understand What You Need
I wish I could tell you that understanding your neurodivergent profile makes everything easy. It doesn't.
But it does make everything clearer.
Instead of feeling like a failure because "normal" strategies don't work for you, you can build strategies that actually match your brain. Instead of requesting vague accommodations that don't help, you can ask for specific changes that make a real difference.
Most importantly, you can stop pretending to be neurotypical and start building a career that honors who you actually are.
This process takes time. Your understanding of your neurodivergent profile will evolve as you experiment, learn, and grow. That's not just okay—it's expected. Give yourself permission to be a work in progress.
The path to neurodivergent workplace success doesn't start with fixing yourself. It starts with understanding yourself.
Ready to Go Deeper?
This article covers the foundation of understanding your neurodivergent work profile, but there's so much more to explore:
Complete self-assessment frameworks to map your full cognitive profile
Accommodation request templates for different workplace scenarios
Executive function systems designed specifically for ADHD/autistic brains
Communication scripts for discussing your needs with managers
Career development strategies that leverage your neurodivergent strengths
The complete Neurodivergent Work Habit Blueprint includes all of this plus:
10 comprehensive modules covering every aspect of neurodivergent workplace success
Fillable templates and worksheets for each exercise
Real-world examples from neurodivergent professionals
Accommodation request frameworks for both disclosed and non-disclosed scenarios
Systems for sensory regulation, time management, and energy optimization
[Download the complete workbook here →]. https://theknowledgelabinc.gumroad.com/l/neurodivergent-work-habit-blueprint
Or start with our free 13-page Quick Start Guide: Essential Accommodations for Neurodivergent Professionals
[Get the free guide →]. https://theknowledgelabinc.gumroad.com/l/nd-starter-pack
Your neurodivergent brain isn't broken. You're not lazy, difficult, or too sensitive. You're navigating a workplace designed for a different kind of mind.
Once you understand what you actually need, you can finally stop trying to force yourself into a neurotypical mold and start building a career that actually works.
Your transformation begins with understanding yourself. Everything else follows from there.
Questions? Thoughts? Share your biggest workplace challenge in the comments below. Let's figure this out together.
Emerson Blake is the founder of The Knowledge Lab Inc. and author of the Neurodivergent Work Habit Blueprint.