Innovation Spring 2026

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” Some of my strengths, I think, lend themselves to engineering and I'm quite happy that I have been able to find a career where my strengths are an advantage.” Sean Birch, P.Eng. Technical Director, GHD “I think one of the strongest accommodations would be relying less on large meetings and instead to have discussions with the neurodivergent person,” Smith said. Simple changes such as allowing concerns or comments be added to a meeting agenda in advance and “allowing time for meeting minutes or transcripts to be reviewed and processed by the neurodivergent person before moving on,” can also create a more inclusive environment allowing those professionals to be better heard, she said. Birch, for his part, said that discussions around neurodivergence should move away from the label and be tied to overall mental health and wellbeing. He has had many conversations about his diagnosis with colleagues, who all have been curious and receptive to his story. “There needs to be more normalizing of the discussions around mental health, physical health, disability; neurodivergence is one piece of that puzzle,” Birch said. “People have to be comfortable talking about it, because if you're not in a workplace where you feel comfortable talking about it, or you worry about some blowback to being open about it, you can't have any of the rest of the discussions that are going to be important.” Mc L arty pointed out that more information is available about neurodivergence, which bodes well for the future. The next step is to understand how neurodivergent people may have different needs and require different accommodations.

Sean Birch, P.Eng.

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Innovation Spring 2026

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