Beyond Equality: Why Equity Matters More at Work
- Divergent Thinking
- May 27
- 6 min read
The way people talk about fairness at work is starting to change.
For a long time, many workplaces focused on equality. In simple terms, that means giving everyone the same thing: the same rules, the same process, the same tools, and the same expectations.
That sounds fair at first. But in real life, people are different. They do not all process information in the same way, communicate in the same way, or work best in the same kind of environment.
That is where equity comes in.
Equity means recognising that people may need different kinds of support in order to have a genuinely fair chance to do well. It is not about giving some people an unfair advantage. It is about removing barriers that were there in the first place.
This was one of the main ideas in a recent interview I did with mentAImage, a platform that shares personal and professional stories about mental health, inclusion and lived experience. Their Beneath the Resume series looks at the person behind the job title. In my conversation with them, we explored what neurodiversity means at work, why equity matters, and how workplaces often misunderstand difference.
What is neurodiversity?
Neurodiversity is the idea that human brains naturally work in different ways.
Some people are neurotypical, meaning their thinking and processing style is closer to what society treats as the norm.
Some people are neurodivergent, which means their brain works differently from that norm. This can include people with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and other differences in how they think, learn, communicate or process the world.
Being neurodivergent does not automatically mean someone is less capable. But it can mean that certain environments, systems or expectations create more difficulty for them than for others.
My story started with labels, but not with real understanding
I was diagnosed with autism and dyspraxia when I was very young, and with dyslexia later on.
Like many neurodivergent people, I grew up in a world that was much better at spotting that I was different than understanding what that difference actually meant.
At school, those labels were often treated as warning signs. They were linked to difficulty, low expectations and underachievement. The focus was usually on what I found hard, not on how I thought, what I noticed, or what I might be good at if I were in the right environment.
That is one of the biggest problems with deficit-based thinking. It notices struggle, but often fails to ask whether the system itself is part of the problem.
For a long time, that shaped how other people saw me. It also shaped how I sometimes saw myself.
Over time, though, I began to understand something important: my neurodivergence was not just a set of difficulties. It also shaped my strengths. It affected how I spotted patterns, solved problems, communicated, and saw things other people missed.
What had once been framed only as weakness started to look much more like part of my value.
Equality and equity are not the same thing
This is where the difference between equality and equity becomes very important.
Equality means treating everyone the same.
Equity means recognising that treating everyone the same is not always fair, because people do not all start from the same place or need the same things.
For example:
If a dyslexic employee is expected to do large amounts of dense reading without any support tools, that may be “equal” treatment, but it is not equitable.
If an autistic employee is told they are welcome, but every meeting is noisy, unstructured and full of unclear social expectations, that may be “equal,” but it is not equitable.
If someone with ADHD is given the same workload system as everyone else, but that system depends heavily on self-organisation with no structure, that may be “equal,” but it may still be setting them up to struggle.
Equity asks a better question:
What does this person need in order to do their job well?
That might mean:
clearer written instructions
a quieter place to work
speech-to-text software
more structured onboarding
clearer priorities
fewer hidden rules
more predictable communication
These are not “extras.” They are practical ways to remove unnecessary barriers.
Equity is not special treatment
A lot of people still think support at work is something extra, or something generous that goes beyond what should normally happen.
I think that is the wrong way to see it.
Equity is not charity.
It is not favouritism.
It is not about lowering standards.
It is about designing work more intelligently.
A workplace that assumes everyone thinks, communicates and works in the same way will always create problems for some people. A workplace that understands human differences can make better decisions about how to help people succeed.
That is why I often say the goal is not to “fix” neurodivergent people so they can survive badly designed workplaces. The goal is to improve the systems that are making work harder than it needs to be.
Hiring still rewards sameness
One of the biggest problems is that many employers still say they want innovation, creativity and fresh thinking, while using recruitment systems designed to reward sameness.
Think about what usually gets treated as a “good candidate”:
a polished CV
confident interview style
quick answers to standard questions
someone who feels familiar and easy to read
That is not neutral. It often reflects one narrow idea of professionalism.
The result is that many neurodivergent people are screened out before they have a real chance to show what they can do.
This matters because organisations are not just being unfair. They are missing out on talent.
Psychological safety matters too
Even when support is technically available, people do not always feel safe asking for it.
This is where psychological safety matters. That means creating a culture where people can speak honestly about what they need without fear of being judged, punished or quietly overlooked.
Many neurodivergent people are asking themselves questions like:
Will this be held against me?
Will they think I am difficult?
Will this affect my career?
Will they still see me as capable?
If the answer feels uncertain, many people stay silent. They mask, overcompensate and burn through energy trying to fit in.
So equity is not only about tools or adjustments. It is also about creating a culture where asking for support feels normal, not risky.
Neurodivergent talent is already in the workforce
Another common mistake is to treat neurodiversity as a niche issue, something relevant only to a small group of people.
That is not true.
Neurodivergent people are already in workplaces everywhere. Many are already in teams, already in leadership pipelines, already applying for jobs, and already working around systems that were not built with them in mind.
The real question is not whether neurodiversity exists in your organisation.
The real question is whether your organisation is good enough at equity to let those people thrive.
“Celebrate the difference” has to mean something real
I often use the phrase celebrate the difference.
But I do not mean that in a superficial way.
It is not about putting the word neurodiversity into a presentation and then carrying on exactly as before. It is not about empty slogans or pretending there are no real difficulties.
It is about understanding that people think differently, and that fairness at work means responding intelligently to that fact.
That is what equity asks us to do.
Not treat everyone identically.
Not cling to old systems because they feel tidy.
Not assume one style of thinking is the default.
But design workplaces that are flexible enough to support real human variation.
Final thought
The move from equality to equity is not just about language.
It is the difference between a workplace that says it is fair and one that actually is.
My own experience taught me that the biggest barrier is often not the label itself. It is the system’s failure to imagine that a different kind of mind might also be a valuable one.
That is why this conversation matters.
Because when workplaces stop trying to make everyone fit the same mould, and start asking what helps different people do their best work, something important happens:
People are understood more fully.
Talent becomes easier to see.
And inclusion becomes something real, not just something nice to say.
To read the original interview that inspired this piece, visit mentAImage’s Beneath the Resume feature.
This blog expands on some of the ideas from that interview. You can also explore more of our work on the Divergent Thinking blog or at Divergent Thinking
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