Virtual Coffee Break Series on Diversity and Inclusion, featuring James Richards

Our upcoming D&I Coffee Break session features James Richards, Professor of Employment Relations from the Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Join us for “Making employment and science careers inclusive for neurodivergent employees.” In this session, James Richards considers what makes for inclusive employment for the science careers of neurodivergent employees.

James broadly covers the emergent area of employment and neurodivergence (the idea that cognitive conditions, such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia, are natural variations in the way people think and process information, and how neurodivergent face many difficulties in workplace, despite having a range of unique strengths that can derive from thinking differently).

Topics covered include: definitions and terminology associated with neurodivergence, key statistics on neurodivergence, common workplace problems, the social model of disability, and good inclusion practice.

The session will appeal to managers of neurodivergent employees working in science careers, neurodivergent people (15-20 per cent of the adult population), as well as staff representatives keen to know more about negotiating more inclusive employment for such a critical, yet historically neglected, part of the workforce.

Biography:

James is a Professor of Employment Relations at the Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. James is Co-Investigator for the UK’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Caucus (EDICa), also based at Heriot-Watt University, where he leads a workstream on enabling workplaces, a £4.2M ($7.4CAD) project funded by a range of UK research councils (1/2023 to 12/2025). He is also Engagement Lead (Neurodiversity) for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) EDI Sharing Hub+ (11/2024 to 10/2028), set up to provide leadership and coordination to support sharing of EDI good practices and ‘what works’ across the engineering, physical and mathematical sciences research community.

James’ research is largely built on previous research projects based around making workplaces more inclusive for neurodivergent and disabled employees. His work has led to 4-star impact case study submitted to the UK’s Research Excellence Framework 2021, a case based on improving inclusion for neurodivergent white-collar, highly skilled employees, working in the rail industry. James is currently co-developing an impact case study based on creating inclusive careers for neurodivergent engineers, a project drawing on a range of evidence-based research led from Heriot-Watt University.