Rethinking Interviews: Lessons from a UCL/Anna Freud ChangeMakers Project on Neurodivergent Inclusion

~ katecoldrick

Written by Kate Coldrick, educator and researcher specialising in inclusive learning and neurodiversity. This reflection draws on my UCL/Anna Freud ChangeMakers project on inclusive postgraduate interview practices, exploring how small adjustments can make academic and professional interviews fairer for neurodivergent applicants.

Person thinking about past memories – symbolising how recalling personal examples can be harder for autistic applicants.
Accessing autobiographical memories can feel different for autistic applicants – recalling personal examples or past experiences in interviews may require more processing time or structured prompts.

Interviews are meant to assess potential – yet for many neurodivergent applicants, they end up measuring something else entirely: how well we can perform a version of ourselves that fits neurotypical expectations.

When I co-led a UCL/Anna Freud ChangeMakers project on Inclusive Postgraduate Interview Practices, this was one of the strongest themes that emerged. Many autistic applicants described interviews not as opportunities to share their knowledge, but as intense social performances requiring constant self-monitoring.

Through staff–student workshops, we explored how traditional interview formats – often unstructured, conversational, and reliant on rapid social inference – can unintentionally exclude candidates whose communication or processing styles differ. The barriers weren’t about capability, but about fit with format.

Person surrounded by tangled thoughts – symbolising focus and organisation challenges during interviews.
Maintaining focus and organising thoughts can be difficult for some candidates – especially in long or high-pressure interviews where distractions and cognitive load increase.

Simple adjustments made a striking difference:

  • Clearer advance information about structure and expectations.
  • Written as well as verbal prompts for reflection.
  • Flexible pacing to allow thinking time without penalty.
  • Awareness training for interviewers around masking, social signalling, and cognitive load.

These are not “special” measures; they’re examples of universal design. They help all candidates to demonstrate what they know – rather than how fluently they can improvise under pressure.

What we learned echoes what so many autistic professionals continue to share today: inclusion isn’t about lowering standards, but about changing the conditions under which potential is recognised.

You can read our project summary and find our workshop materials here:
🔗 UCL/Anna Freud ChangeMakers: Inclusive Postgraduate Interviews (PDF)

If we want truly equitable recruitment and postgraduate entry processes, the question isn’t “How can neurodivergent applicants adapt?” – it’s “How can institutions adapt so that everyone can show what they’re capable of?”

Thank you for reading this post by Kate Coldrick. If you’d like to explore more of my work, you can visit my pages on Educational Writing by Kate Coldrick, discover my teaching resources, or browse further reflections on autism and inclusive learning on Kate Coldrick’s blog