The workshop began with presentations addressing a broad range of topics at the intersection of neurodiversity, life transitions, and HCI. While not all accepted contributions could be presented during the workshop, the corresponding papers are available here:

• Valerie Tan: Human-Computer Interaction’s Potential to Improve the Start of University for Neurodivergent International Students
• Jana-Sophie Effert & Mirco Spiegel: Neurodivergent Grief from a Socio-Technical Perspective
• Julia Hermann & Ayse Dogüngan:
  • Onboarding as a Socio-Technical Life Transition: AI-Assisted Entry for Neurodivergent Employees in German Public Administration
  • AI Support for Adults with ADHD and Its Implications for Life Transitions
• Daniela Rauen: Supporting the Transition to Employment: The AUT-KI Project for Inclusive Workplace Communication

The research perspectives were complemented by valuable insights from practice. Dorina Theurer from BBW Offenburg introduced current approaches and tools used in the digitalisation of vocational education and rehabilitation at BBW Offenburg.

Mapping Relevant Life Transitions

Following the input session, participants began a collaborative exploration of life transitions relevant to neurodivergent people.

In an initial individual brainstorming activity, participants identified a broad range of transitions across the lifespan. These included:

• Work-related transitions: from school to work, between jobs, career changes, and retirement;
• Physical and health-related transitions: receiving a diagnosis, ageing, and bodily changes;
• Changes in private life: bereavement, starting a family, relationships, separation, and changing hobbies;
• Changes of place and environment: homelessness as well as voluntary and involuntary relocation.

This collection highlighted that life transitions are not restricted to institutional milestones. They also include gradual, unexpected, and highly personal changes that may require people to reorient themselves in social, material, and digital environments.

Neurotypical Norms and Barriers in Transitions

In a second step, participants discussed neurotypical norms and barriers that may characterise these situations.

A central theme was time: transitions often require extensive preparation, rapid learning, real-time adjustment, and the ability to process many new demands within a short period.

Participants also reflected on the question of responsibility for interaction and communication. This includes who is expected to seek or provide information, who needs to initiate communication, and who is responsible for adapting the form and channel of communication.

Further discussions addressed assumptions that life transitions are challenging in similar ways for all neurotypes, as well as expectations that people should cope quietly, independently, and “be strong.” Participants noted that transitions are often characterised by implicit information about social and cultural conventions, which may be difficult to access, identify, or interpret.

Implications for HCI and Technology Design

The group subsequently translated these observations into possible HCI perspectives and technical approaches.

Participants discussed the potential of:

• integrated applications, such as maps and planners, that bring different functions together in one place;
• chatbots or robots as possible sources of support and orientation;
• technologies that help reduce decision overload and support prioritisation in line with ideas of calm technology;
• digital tools that make processes, responsibilities, and available resources more transparent.

At the same time, participants emphasised that additional tools can also become overwhelming. Technical support therefore needs to be carefully designed, configurable, and responsive to individual needs and existing practices.

After the individual brainstorming and plenary discussion, participants continued in smaller groups using a World Café format. One group focused on transitions in work contexts.

The group explored the situation of starting in a new occupational field after retraining, in a self-chosen but unfamiliar environment. While change is expected in such a situation, the nature and extent of the change may remain unclear.

Relevant challenges included:

• transferring existing strategies to a new context;
• interacting with new colleagues and social structures;
• organising oneself in unfamiliar processes and environments;
• deciding which questions to ask, whom to ask, when to ask them, and how many questions are considered appropriate.

Neurotypical norms and barriers were particularly visible in expectations around information processing and filtering. New employees may be expected to rapidly absorb and process information, independently identify what is relevant, and recognise which resources they need without explicit guidance.

From an HCI perspective, participants discussed digital support for transparent process representations as well as new approaches to frequently asked questions (FAQs). Importantly, the group also highlighted the value of a double empathy approach: inclusive onboarding should not place responsibility for “fitting in” solely on the new employee.

Instead, technological support could also address teams and organisations. For example, tools could provide team instructions and shared guidance for inclusive everyday collaboration. Social barriers were therefore identified as central challenges in onboarding processes, while adequate team-oriented guidance emerged as an important instrument for inclusion.

A second World Café group explored transitions in private life, with a focus on moving to a new country.

First, a discussion on the diversity of international migrants took place. The group discussed how moving to a new country can have positive, negative, and/or neutral impacts on neurodivergent people. Neurodivergent people can mourn the loss of something in their social system in their origin country or celebrate gaining something. In many cases, positive, negative, and neutral impacts on the social system of neurodivergent individuals can occur at the same time. The timing of this transition may be expected e.g. internationals starting university or a new job or unexpected e.g. asylum seekers. 

The next phase of discussion centered around neurotypical norms and challenges that neurodivergent people experience and possible strategies for neurotypical internationals and locals alike. The group discussed how it can be difficult for some neurodivergent people to meet new people whereas other neurodivergent people may meet new people but have difficulties sustaining relationships. Possible strategies that could be technology-mediated include a one-on-one buddy program that matches people by taking complementing skills into account, and creating and sustaining online chat groups. An additional pervasive challenge that neurodivergent internationals face include expectations to learn and understand existing social conventions. The group also discussed that at the same time, it is not accurate to always assume that neurodivergent internationals do not understand existing conventions in their new countries. In many situations, they understand conventions very well and in addition to that, face discrimination from other people. As a result, similarly to the first World Café group, the group concluded that neurodivergent internationals should share the burden of social integration with all other members of society. 

Possible HCI solutions discussed by the group generally centered around assistance and self-help for neurodivergent internationals. These included digital therapy with professionals, helpful media that provides detailed information on social norms, noise-cancelling headphones, music, ambient background sounds, and VR training scenarios (e.g. train a hospital or doctor visit before an emergency happens). One HCI solution that centers around integrating other members of society include media that makes discrimination more visible to the general public. 

We would like to thank all participants for their contributions, perspectives, and openness during the workshop. The discussions demonstrated the importance of understanding life transitions as socio-technical situations in which inclusion and exclusion can emerge.

We will continue working on the intersections of life transitions, neurodiversity, and HCI, and welcome future collaborations across research and practice.

If you are interested in the topic or would like to collaborate, please contact Jana-Sophie Effert or Valerie Tan

As a group of workshop organizers with neurotypical and neurodivergent perspectives, we bringing together lived experience with practical and academic expertise related to neurodivergent life realities.

Jana-Sophie Effert is a research fellow and doctoral candidate at the Department of Work, Inclusion, and Technology at TU Dortmund University. With a background in psychology and a focus on human factors, she is currently working primarily on the human-centered design of inclusive work systems.

Daniela Rauen is a research fellow at Ferdinand-Steinbeis-Institut Heilbronn. She is doing research in HCI, focusing on inclusive interaction, neurodiversity and ethics. With a background in diaconial studies and social work, her research integrates those perspectives with technological innovation to design systems that serve often overlooked people. 

Julia Hermann is a research fellow at the Institute of Positive Computing at Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences. With a background in human-centered design and social perspectives on technology, her research focuses currently on course-based co-creation formats for inclusive and accessible IT design in computing.

Dr. Bedour Alshaigy is a Lecturer in the Department of Information Technology at Uppsala University in Sweden. Her research background includes educational technology, HCI and computer science. She currently studies accessibility and inclusion in computer science education (CSEd), with a particular focus on neurodiversity. 

CJD (Christliches Jugenddorfwerk Deutschlands) is one of Germany’s largest social and educational organizations, providing a wide range of services in education, vocational training, employment, and social inclusion. With extensive expertise in supporting neurodiverse individuals, including people on the autism spectrum, the CJD develops tailored programs that promote participation, independence, and equal opportunities across all stages of life.

Valerie Tan is a research assistant and doctoral candidate at the Inclusive Human-Robot Interaction research unit at TU Dortmund University. She has a background in media informatics and her research focuses on assistive technologies for adults with ADHD. 

Prof. Dr. Frauke Mörike heads the Department of Work, Inclusion, and Technology at TU Dortmund University. As an ethnologist and business IT specialist with many years of practical experience in multinational companies, her research interests focus on computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) in relation to new forms of work and modes of collaboration, as well as the design of inclusive socio-technical work systems.