Neurodiversity advocate and my own personal hero, Chris Packham, recently made a series for the BBC titled Inside Our Minds. It focused on giving a voice to neurodivergent individuals by creating short films to explain how their minds work.

During the episode on dyslexia, Chris visited GCHQ to discover why dyslexic people were being actively recruited for their pattern recognition and analytical skills. 

They discussed how a neurodiverse workforce (made up of both neurodivergent and neurotypical individuals) enabled them to solve more complex and wide-ranging problems. In particular, they highlighted how dyslexic people make ideal “analysts for the modern era”: 

“Their strengths include pattern recognition when dealing with big data, seeing the bigger picture when considering complex future scenarios, and finding solutions to novel and challenging problems.” – Dyslexic thinking skills are mission-critical for protecting the country, gchq.gov.uk.

Identifying as neurodivergent

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)’s Decrypting Diversity 2021 report stated that 19% of industry professionals identify as neurodivergent – higher than the estimated 10% of the UK population. 

Neurodivergence encompasses a range of conditions including, but not limited to:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Dyspraxia
• Dyslexia
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Tourette Syndrome

Cybersecurity appears to be a well-suited career path for neurodivergent individuals, due to several cognitive strengths that are valued in the field. These include:

• High attention to detail
• Pattern recognition
• The ability to hyperfocus
• Persistence
• Creative and innovative thinking

With a much-publicised cybersecurity skills gap, are neurodivergent minds the answer to this?

Removing barriers to entry in cybersecurity

At Immersive, we partner with charities and organisations that support the neurodivergent community with access to our Cyber Million program. 

The program provides free access to hands-on cyber exercises for anyone over 16 years old, helping them build the necessary skills for a career in cybersecurity and remove barriers to entry.

As an organisation, we also have many neurodivergent employees, including myself. Each person brings a unique skill set and perspective to their role. As a user researcher, seeing patterns in both qualitative and quantitative data, a strong ability to remember details and sequences, and an independent and creative way of thinking, all help me to do my job better. 

In addition to my day job, I also chair Immersive’s DEI Committee, which focuses on advocacy, education, and safe spaces for all. Many of our DEI events have spotlighted neurodiversity, with both external speakers and panels of Immersers sharing their stories. 

Get involved

While we try our best, we acknowledge that our platform and content will likely pose some obstacles for the neurodivergent community. 

So, I want to know: Have you encountered any issues? What do you see as something that could be improved? 

• If you see an issue or bug on the platform, you can post in our community Help Forum or contact our Customer Support team. They’ll investigate and get back to you with any feedback or resolution. 
• If you’d like to give more general feedback on your experience of Immersive as (or on behalf of) a neurodivergent individual and have suggestions for improvements, please fill out this survey. I’ll compile this feedback and present it to relevant teams who may use it for feature prioritisation. 

As a thank you, we’ll provide a £10 (or local currency equivalent) eGift Card for all correctly completed surveys (limited to one per person).

In a world that may not have been designed for them, neurodivergent individuals are forging paths in industries such as cybersecurity. Immersive wants to make sure that they’re not only heard and included, but have all the skills and opportunities to lead the way and Be Ready.