{"id":24655,"date":"2026-07-16T08:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/find.codeghost.online\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=24655"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:14:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:14:31","slug":"boosting-accessibility-at-microsoft-with-help-from-neurodivergent-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/find.codeghost.online\/insidetrack\/blog\/boosting-accessibility-at-microsoft-with-help-from-neurodivergent-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Boosting accessibility at Microsoft with help from neurodivergent employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As new technologies reshape how people work, accessibility must move beyond compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other inclusive legislation around the world to become supportive of how different people process information. Traditional approaches can fall short when it comes to the needs of neurodiverse people, leaving gaps in usability and inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Microsoft, this shift is grounded in years of investment in our neurodiverse employees. From launching our Microsoft Neurodiversity Hiring Program<\/a> to building a company-wide focus on neuro-inclusive employee experiences<\/a>, we bring our lived experience to how we design and build our products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We set out to better understand where our products could do more for all our users and challenge established accessibility norms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen we create space for neurodivergent voices to shape our products, we don\u2019t just improve accessibility, we build better technology for everyone. Accessibility is strongest when it is informed by lived experience, and initiatives like our product feedback sessions make sure those voices directly influence how our products evolve.\u201d<\/p>\nNeil Barnett, chief accessibility officer, Microsoft Accessibility<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Neurodiversity Celebration Week became the launch point for a new approach to product feedback and co-design at Microsoft. We used the event to create an ongoing program that brings the perspectives of neurodivergent employees directly into the product development process, especially individuals who experience challenges with executive functioning tasks such as focus, learning, memory, organization, and task completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our first feedback round, 150 neurodivergent employees evaluated 10 products across multiple divisions using real-world scenarios. Rather than focusing only on traditional accessibility checks, they shared insights on how products support everyday thinking, learning, and productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feedback provided product teams with a deeper understanding of where experiences can be simplified or made more intuitive and easier to navigate. More importantly, it established a repeatable process for gathering perspectives from people across the cognitive spectrum, helping teams build products that work better for more people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When we create space for neurodivergent voices to shape our products, we don\u2019t just improve accessibility, we build better technology for everyone,\u201d says Neil Barnett, chief accessibility officer in Microsoft Accessibility. \u201cAccessibility is strongest when it is informed by lived experience, and initiatives like our product feedback sessions make sure those voices directly influence how our products evolve.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How neurodiversity can help a broader audience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Neurodiversity refers to the idea that neurological differences\u2014including autism, ADHD, and dyslexia\u2014are a natural part of human diversity. It recognizes that there\u2019s no single \u201cright\u201d way for the brain to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cNeurodivergent employees bring an innovative way of thinking and have ideas that help make our products better.\u201d<\/p>\nTarena Shanaberger, senior PM, Microsoft Accessibility<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Product groups at Microsoft value feedback from our neurodiverse employees. However, without a consistent way to get it, product groups had to reach out with ad hoc requests through the different inclusion networks at the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw an opportunity to create both lasting change and more efficiency in this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeurodivergent employees bring an innovative way of thinking and have ideas that help make our products better,\u201d says Tarena Shanaberger, a senior PM on the Microsoft Accessibility team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designing with lived experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Neurodivergent inclusion is most valuable when it\u2019s built in early in the product lifecycle, preferably before assumptions take hold and shape the product in ways that are harder to change later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cLived experience is a genuine form of expertise. You can have telemetry, design reviews, usability metrics, and KPIs that mean things to people who review data, but there are aspects of cognitive load and human behavior that become much more visible when you involve people who experience systems differently.\u201d<\/p>\nKarl Niblock, architect, Engineering and Architecture Group Security<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Karl Niblock, an architect in our Engineering and Architecture Group Security team, believes that early intent can result in experiences that delight users by making products \u201cshockingly\u201d easy and a joy to use, even for something as routine as logging into a tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designing systems that help reduce unnecessary cognitive friction means more people can do their best work consistently and with more confidence. Those are the types of human-centered insights that aren’t possible to derive from data alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLived experience is a genuine form of expertise,\u201d Niblock says. \u201cYou can have telemetry, design reviews, usability metrics, and KPIs that mean things to people who review data, but there are aspects of cognitive load and human behavior that become much more visible when you involve people who experience systems differently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people share their experiences, everyone can learn and benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the patterns I often see is dead-end workflows, where a user follows the process exactly as instructed but ends up stuck, with no obvious next step,” Niblock says. “For someone with dyslexia or autism, the challenge is often not the task itself but the repeated effort of decoding similar-looking instructions and trying to determine what went wrong. By designing clear recovery paths, plain-language guidance, and visible next actions, we can dramatically reduce cognitive friction. Those improvements help neurodivergent users, but they also make products easier and less stressful for everyone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building a better path for product feedback<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Software engineer Jordan Cowe surfaced an idea to host an annual neurodiversity bug bash to uncover where products pose challenges for neurodivergent users. He explains that neurodivergent employees are often some of the first people to identify points of friction before release and says that the bug bash helped shine attention on these issues and encourage product group action on the feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIf something affects a neurodivergent employee, it likely also affects many people who don\u2019t identify as neurodiverse. Fixing these issues improves the products for everyone, making them easier to use and better at keeping users engaged.\u201d<\/p>\nJordan Cowe, software engineer II, Copilot Engineering team<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This bug bash led to a structured way to bring in testers, distribute feedback results to product groups, and infuse key learnings into our products. Our testers asynchronously went through the instructions, followed the scenarios, recorded their screens, talked through their pain points, and completed a product survey. We used the results to rate product usability, which helped us identify issues and ideas for improving our products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf something affects a neurodivergent employee, it likely also affects many people who don\u2019t identify as neurodiverse,\u201d Cowe says. \u201cFixing these issues improves the products for everyone, making them easier to use and better at keeping users engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What feedback looks like from the product side<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft AI UX researcher Audrey Aday used feedback from the co-design sessions to explore what makes an AI response feel inclusive, useful, and manageable. Tester feedback showed that the issue wasn\u2019t capability, it was control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cInstead of treating accessibility as a check-the-box exercise, we\u2019re building relationships with neurodivergent employees and embedding their feedback into the full product development lifecycle. We\u2019re moving away from \u2018test this for us once\u2019 to \u2018build this with us, continuously.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\nAudrey Aday, UX researcher II, Microsoft AI Design<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Testers consistently said Copilot can feel overwhelming when it returns too much information at once. They want more control (not less capability) over how much detail they see. In response, product teams are exploring custom instruction menus, smarter defaults, and adaptive personalization that learns individual preferences without creating extra work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Product teams across Microsoft see lived experiences as a quality driver, not an edge case. Neurodivergent employees help teams spot usability opportunities that benefit everyone, especially around information overload, pacing, and clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of treating accessibility as a check-the-box exercise, we\u2019re building relationships with neurodivergent employees and embedding their feedback into the full product development lifecycle,\u201d Aday says. \u201cWe\u2019re moving away from \u2018test this for us once\u201d to \u2018build this with us, continuously\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the Inclusive Tech Lab supports co-design<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Support also comes from the Inclusive Tech Lab<\/a>, where Microsoft design teams work directly with users with disabilities to uncover exclusionary designs and identify new product opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe best time to engage with us is when employees are starting something new or revising old designs. The Inclusive Tech Lab helps teams partner with disabled advisors early in the design process.\u201d<\/p>\nSarah Heinzen, senior designer, Microsoft Design and Research<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The lab connects teams with people who bring their lived experience across different scenarios, such as limited mobility, photosensitivity, low vision, and neurodivergence. This co-design approach brings in users early and keeps them involved so their lived experience can shape product decisions from the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe best time to engage with us is when employees are starting something new or revising old designs,\u201d says Sarah Heinzen, a senior designer on the Microsoft Design and Research team. \u201cThe Inclusive Tech Lab helps teams partner with disabled advisors early in the design process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building feedback into how we work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While the product teams work on incorporating feedback, we\u2019re hard at work solidifying this continuous feedback loop and adding it to everyday product development at Microsoft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partnering with the Inclusive Tech Lab, we\u2019re setting the foundation for making that a reality using:<\/p>\n\n\n\n