Students today are facing unprecedented levels of pressure to perform and stand out.
Academic success is increasingly tied to future career opportunities as jobs become more competitive and AI threatens some entry-level roles. At the same time, considerable numbers of college students are turning to academic accommodations to maintain progress and succeed. Around 20% of Harvard students and nearly 40% of Stanford undergraduates now use such support, and it’s not just elite campuses: colleges across the country are seeing record demand.
Over the past 15 years, the number of students qualifying for support — most commonly extended exam time or flexible attendance — has grown significantly. This reflects rising mental health diagnoses, increased recognition of neurodivergence, and reduced stigma around seeking help, alongside institutions making support easier to access.
Some critics argue that accommodations are overused, but evidence of widespread abuse is limited. Most students have legitimate needs. The bigger question for employers is not whether accommodations are justified — it’s how graduates, used to structured academic support, will manage in workplaces that often operate differently.
Academic vs. Workplace Accommodations
In U.S. higher education, institutions are expected to provide a range of accommodations for students with disabilities to help them succeed in their courses — for example, extra time on tests, access to assistive technologies, tutoring, mentoring, or support programs.
These supports are intended to remove barriers that might otherwise put disabled students at a disadvantage compared with their peers. However, research on the effectiveness of these accommodations remains limited.
While some studies suggest a positive correlation with student success, evidence on which approaches work best is inconclusive.
Workplace accommodations operate under a different framework compared to student accommodations. Under laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, accommodations are intended to enable employees to perform essential job functions without lowering performance standards.
In practice, they are often treated as exceptions rather than embedded features of work design, leaving employees responsible for requesting and justifying support.
Are Workplaces Meeting Graduates’ Accommodation Needs?
Colleges have adapted quickly to evolving student needs, offering extended deadlines, flexible attendance, and individualized support structures that help students manage challenges and succeed academically. That means an increasing number of graduates now enter the workforce having learned within systems that assume variation in how people process information, manage time, and perform under pressure.
Workplaces, by contrast, have been slower to evolve. Fixed schedules, rigid deadlines, and narrow productivity metrics remain common, even as roles grow more complex and cognitively demanding.
As a result, many graduates move from well-supported college environments into workplaces where expectations are very different.
Allwork.Space spoke with Dr. Colleen Batchelder, Founder and CEO of Indiviti and a leading expert on hiring and managing young employees, specifically Gen Z. Dr. Batchelder explains that for younger employees accustomed to accommodations in college, entering the workplace can be challenging.
“I think many Gen Z employees don’t want to rock the boat, especially right now,” she says.
Rather than voicing their needs or requesting accommodations, many lean into a type of invisibility, hoping that simply being a cog in the wheel will help secure their professional footing.
Batchelder does not believe this is due to workplace indifference, as many companies actively strive to create environments where all employees can thrive. However, she notes that Gen Z may be hesitant to trust that a company’s commitment to support will be reflected in concrete, practical accommodations.
“It’s a huge risk to take that leap and be honest about your needs,” she says.
For this reason, she believes accommodations should be presented not merely as an HR option, but as an invitation: a clear, proactive assurance that support is available. In today’s competitive labor market, guaranteed support is often what encourages young employees to speak up.
While some employers provide informal adjustments — such as asynchronous schedules, AI tools to reduce administrative tasks, or flexible deadlines — these measures are not always enough. Many employees, particularly those with specific needs or disabilities, also require formal accommodations to remove barriers.
Formal accommodations are structured interventions, such as physical modifications, assistive technologies, adjusted performance metrics, and structured support that includes mentoring or regular check-ins.
Allwork.Space also spoke with Darren Clark, a global workplace culture and neurodiversity consultant whose work with organizations in the U.K. and internationally focuses on translating inclusion from policy into everyday leadership practice. Clark explained that academic accommodations are clear and expected in education because students are informed about the support available, how to access it, and why it exists.
“In the transition to the workplace, that clarity often disappears,” he says.
In his experience, the most significant gap is not a lack of intention, but how work is designed. Clark believes many workplaces still reward speed, constant availability, and rigid processes, rather than outcomes. As a result, support shifts from being normalized to something employees feel they have to justify.
For neurodivergent employees, this often leads to masking or pushing through without support, creating stress and burnout instead of strong performance. Clark notes that organizations that get it right focus less on labels and more on “creating the conditions that allow people to do their best work.”
Together, these perspectives highlight a dual challenge: younger employees need both cultural trust to request support and structured systems that normalize accommodations. To bridge this gap, workplaces must combine proactive communication with thoughtful design, ensuring that all employees can thrive regardless of background or neurodiversity.
Informal or Formal Workplace Adjustments: What Works Best?
Clark explained that many workplaces already offer informal (or silent) accommodations, even if they are not formally identified that way. According to Clark, flexible hours, asynchronous communication, autonomy over tasks, and the use of AI tools often improve performance across the board, not only for neurodivergent employees. In practice, many of these adjustments already exist in workplaces, but they are applied inconsistently.
Clark emphasizes that without formalized systems, access often depends on individual managers or team culture. For early-career employees, especially Gen Z, this can make flexibility feel uncertain or even inaccessible. This turns support into something employees hope for rather than something they can rely on.
Formal policies are critical because they establish psychological safety, signaling that accommodations are not exceptions but standard practice. As Clark states, “Flexibility is legitimate and expected, not a personal favor.”
Dr. Batchelder echoes this point, highlighting that informal accommodations can only go so far. She emphasizes that formality should be the norm for accommodations.
“Look, I get it. Casual Fridays are great. But when it comes to contractual agreements that promise to support your employees, there needs to be a formal process that assures them of your support and also protects you from liability,” she explains. “Clarity needs to be key. So, when you’re offering accommodations, write it up like you would an onboarding contract. Be transparent, show exactly what you offer, and give your employees the chance to ask for clarification before you both sign on the dotted line.”
“Don’t be coy. Be direct,” she adds. “Because if you just wing it, then you’re not really benefiting your employee. You’re making promises and setting yourself up for failure.”
Batchelder notes that formal accommodations benefit both employees and organizations. By clearly documenting support, companies ensure consistency, maintain accountability, and strengthen succession planning. In turn, Gen Z employees gain confidence to request accommodations, knowing they are backed by policy rather than chance.
Clark believes that the strongest organizations understand that structure and humanity are not in conflict. They pair clear frameworks with thoughtful application, ensuring that adjustments feel normal rather than exceptional.
From Accommodations to Inclusive Work Design: Bridging College and Career
Organizations face a strategic choice: continue managing support on a case-by-case basis or redesign work so fewer employees need to request adjustments at all.
Academics such as Ludmila Praslova argue that genuine inclusion requires rethinking job design itself — redesigning workflows, performance evaluations, and environments to account for cognitive diversity as a baseline condition of modern work.
When systems are built to accommodate diverse working styles from the outset, support becomes standard rather than exceptional, reducing stigma while improving access for everyone.
A 2025 study on work accommodations found that employees with disabilities reported more negative experiences overall. Interestingly, these differences largely disappeared when accommodations were fully integrated, indicating that systemic cultural and structural changes are needed.
From a management perspective, becoming proactive about embedding support into work systems is good for business. Rising legal disputes related to neurodiversity highlight the risks of remaining reactive to support requests. Organizations that integrate flexibility into performance metrics, career pathways, and workforce planning can lower legal risk while boosting retention and engagement.
Dr. Batchelder asserts that workplaces should recognize inclusion as a strategic communication and engagement opportunity.
“Companies need to make their mission clear, repeatedly and in multiple ways,” she explains.
Practical steps include providing Gen Z employees with a step-by-step plan of what to expect during the accommodation process, giving them the chance to connect with a contact lead before paperwork begins, posting policies visibly throughout the office and online, and inviting employees to share their experiences.
“There’s nothing more powerful than hearing someone’s story…don’t just tell Gen Z what you offer; give them the chance to hear about it in the words of one of their peers,” says Batchelder.
Together, these approaches highlight a dual strategy: formalize accommodations while embedding inclusivity into work design. When flexibility and support are normalized rather than treated as exceptions, employees gain confidence, reduce stress, and are more likely to thrive.
Nearly half of Gen Z workers believe accommodations should be universal, reflecting evidence that inclusive practices improve performance, creativity, and retention across teams (not only for disabled employees).
Early-stage interventions from companies such as Microsoft, SAP, Ernst & Young, and JPMorgan Chase, which have redesigned interviews to reduce stress, demonstrate how inclusive design can begin even before employment starts.
Ultimately, bridging the gap from college to career requires workplaces to combine proactive, transparent communication with systemic redesign, ensuring that accommodations are not only available but predictable, normalized, and fully integrated into work culture.
Supporting Neurodivergent Employees
For neurodivergent employees, workplace pressures are often compounded by cultural and systemic barriers rooted in social norms, hiring practices, and inconsistent policies. Although disclosure can unlock support, stigma and limited understanding continue to influence the work experience for neurodivergent employees.
Some organizations are responding proactively. Industry reports indicate a rise in job postings that explicitly reference neurodiversity, with companies framing neurodivergent talent as a strategic advantage (although this must not come at the expense of recognizing the unique challenges faced by those who are neurodiverse).
This shift has brought greater attention to neuroinclusive design. Artificial intelligence is adding a new dimension to inclusive work design for neurodiverse employees. When implemented thoughtfully, AI can enhance inclusivity by supporting employees in managing cognitive load, communication, and workflow tasks.
However, when organizations implement AI systems without providing adequate support for neurodivergent employees, performance, retention, and engagement can suffer. In such cases, the inappropriate use of AI risks creating long-term fragility in the workforce.
Clark emphasizes that balancing inclusion with current economic pressures will also be an ongoing challenge. “…inclusion and performance are not in conflict. Inclusion is how performance is sustained,” he says. “Supporting neurodivergent Gen Z workers is not about lowering standards. It is about building systems that allow people to contribute fully, sustainably, and at their best.”
Clark highlights that there is an opportunity to rethink how work itself is structured. For neurodivergent employees, there can be barriers in relation to communication, memory load, task initiation, and rigid work patterns. AI-assisted workflows, skills-based hiring, and flexible role design can remove some of these persistent barriers, particularly for neurodivergent employees.
In practice, this can mean shifting to outcome-based performance measures, using assistive AI tools, allowing flexibility in how work is sequenced, and offering quieter or remote working options where appropriate. These are not radical changes; they are practical, intentional design choices that make work more accessible and sustainable.
These trends suggest that the early careers of Gen Z employees will vary widely depending on how organizations adapt. Some companies will proactively redesign work systems to embed flexibility, transparency, and inclusivity, while others may retain legacy structures. That unevenness is likely to shape which employers can fully leverage emerging talent and which struggle to retain high-potential workers.
Ultimately, the rise in accommodations is not a sign of generational fragility. Instead, it represents an opportunity: to build workplaces where more employees can do their best work, supported by thoughtful policies, culture, and technology.
