ADHD Accommodations at Work: A Request Template

Asking for accommodations for ADHD at work is, for a lot of us, the hardest part of the whole thing. Not the work. Not even the ADHD. The email. The bit where you have to name the thing out loud, in writing, to someone who controls your payslip, and hope they read it as "here is how I do my best work" rather than "here is a list of my faults". I have written that email badly more times than I have written it well, so this guide is the version I wish someone had handed me: what to actually ask for, the words to use, and a template you can lift and adapt.

A quick, honest framing before we start. I am Matt, the founder of Neuro Supply Co, and I am writing from lived experience and from a lot of conversations with other neurodivergent people who work. This is practical support, not legal or medical advice. If you want chapter and verse on the legal side, your rights and what counts, our companion guide on reasonable adjustments for ADHD covers that properly. This guide is about the request itself.

Get the framing right before you write a word

The single biggest mistake — and I made it for years — is leading with the diagnosis and a vague plea for "understanding". Most managers genuinely want to help and have no idea what to do with that. They are not being difficult; they just need something they can action.

So flip it. An accommodation request lands best when it is specific, framed around outcomes, and easy to say yes to. The mental template is roughly:

"Here's a situation where my output drops. Here's a small, concrete change. Here's how it helps me deliver what you actually need."

Notice what that does. It is not about you being broken. It is about a mismatch between how a generic workplace is set up and how your brain produces good work — and a low-cost fix for it. You do not have to over-explain ADHD. You do not have to hand over your medical history. You are asking for a working arrangement, and most of what helps people with ADHD helps everyone else too.

One more thing: you do not strictly need a diagnosis to ask for changes to how you work. Plenty of these are just reasonable requests any decent manager would grant. Whether and how to formally disclose is a separate, personal decision — we walk through it in should you disclose ADHD to your employer.

Know what you are actually asking for

Before you draft anything, get specific about which parts of the day cost you the most. Vague requests get vague answers. Here are accommodations that tend to be genuinely useful and genuinely cheap for an employer to grant:

• Instructions in writing. A one-line follow-up after verbal briefings, or "could you drop that in Slack?" Verbal-only instructions evaporate; this is not laziness, it is working memory.
• Fewer, batched meetings and a clear agenda. Or permission to keep your camera off and fidget or doodle to stay present. If meetings eat you alive, our guide on meetings and ADHD has more.
• Flexibility on start times or focus blocks. Protected deep-work time with notifications off, or a couple of hours where you are not expected to be instantly reachable.
• A quieter space or noise control. Headphones, a corner desk, or a bookable focus room. Open-plan offices are a particular trial — see surviving open-plan offices with ADHD.
• Sensory and focus tools at your desk. Quiet fidgets, noise-cancelling headphones, a timer for time-blindness. We keep a small range of quiet fidgets for work precisely because the loud clicky ones get you side-eye in meetings.
• Written deadlines broken into chunks, and a regular short check-in instead of one looming due date — far kinder to executive function than "let me know if you need anything".

Pick two or three that would genuinely move the needle. A focused request is far more likely to be granted than a wishlist of fifteen.

The request template

Here is the bones of it. Adapt freely — your voice, your situation. Keep it short.

Subject: A couple of working adjustments > > Hi [Manager], > > I wanted to flag a few small changes that would help me do my best work. I have ADHD, which mainly affects [working memory / sustained focus / managing multiple verbal instructions — pick what's true]. None of this affects the quality of what I deliver; it is more about setting things up so I can deliver it consistently. > > Three things would make a real difference: > > - [Adjustment one] — for example, having key actions confirmed in writing after our catch-ups, so nothing slips. > - [Adjustment two] — for example, a protected focus block on [day], with notifications off. > - [Adjustment three] — for example, the option to keep my camera off in larger meetings so I can stay focused. > > Happy to talk any of these through, and to adjust if any of them don't work for the team. Thank you for reading. > > [Your name]

That is it. No apology, no medical essay, no over-justifying. If your workplace has an occupational-health or HR process, you can mention you are open to going through it — but you do not have to wait for a formal process to ask a manager directly for everyday changes.

Handling the conversation that follows

You have hit send. Now the bit nobody warns you about: the in-between, where your brain helpfully fills the silence with disaster scenarios.

A few things that help:

• Expect a conversation, not an instant yes. A good manager will ask questions. That is engagement, not rejection. Have a sentence ready for each request explaining the "why".
• Trial it. If they hesitate, suggest a four-week trial. Low stakes for them, and it reframes the whole thing as an experiment rather than a permanent concession.
• Get it in writing. Once something is agreed, a quick "thanks, just to confirm we said X" email protects you both and means you are not re-litigating it in three months.
• Separate the ask from your self-worth. Easier said than done, I know. The request is a logistics email about how work gets done. It is not a referendum on whether you are good enough.

If the request is part of a bigger pattern of struggling, it is worth zooming out. Accommodations help, but they sit alongside how you manage energy and workload — our broader guide on thriving at work without burning out goes there.

If the answer is no — or a vague maybe

Sometimes you get a fobbing-off. Here is how to keep your footing without it becoming a fight:

• Ask for the reasoning in writing. "Thanks — could you let me know what the concern is so I can see if there's a version that works?" This turns a flat no into a problem to solve together.
• Offer a smaller version. If the full focus block is a no, can you have one morning? If a private room is impossible, can you have headphones and a quieter desk? Movement beats stalemate.
• Loop in HR or occupational health. In the UK, employers have duties around adjustments for disabled employees, and ADHD can fall within that. Our reasonable adjustments guide explains the framing, and for anything you suspect is unlawful treatment, get proper advice from ACAS or a union rather than from me.
• Know your own line. Sometimes the honest answer is that the job, not your brain, is the problem. That is real information too.

None of this is about demanding special treatment. It is about removing the small, daily friction that stops a perfectly capable person from showing what they can do. The email is hard. The thing it unlocks is usually worth it.

If you want a gentle starting point that does not involve telling anyone anything, the free ND Starter Kit has a brain-dump sheet and an energy tracker — useful for working out which parts of your day are actually costing you the most, before you ask for a single thing.