Calm in Motion
I’ve lived with dyslexia for decades. I was diagnosed with ADHD earlier this year. My son is autistic. Yet despite the personal relevance, I had never fully considered how the structures of corporate travel perform for people whose cognitive experience of the world differs sometimes subtly, sometimes profoundly.
So, I set out to understand it. Over 10 months, I interviewed neurodivergent business travelers, gathered quantitative data and analyzed friction points across the trip lifecycle. The resulting paper, Calm in Motion, is not a manifesto. It is an evidence-led exploration of where current travel design falls short, not through intent, but through omission.
The findings revealed something important: the barriers neurodivergent travelers face are neither niche nor isolated. In fact, they expose systemic weaknesses that affect everyone.
The Real Issue: Not Visibility, but Invisibility
The starting point is disclosure. Birkbeck University research shows that 65% of neurodivergent employees do not disclose at work. The reasons are predictable: stigma, misunderstanding and a fear, justified or not, that disclosure will change how colleagues perceive them.
This has consequences. If most neurodivergent travelers remain invisible within their organizations, the industry cannot rely on identification, flagging or tailored programs to reach them. Instead, suppliers and travel managers must assume their presence and design accordingly.
This led to a simple realization: if we want to improve travel for neurodivergent people, we must build solutions that work without someone ever needing to raise their hand. And when you do that, you tend to produce better outcomes for everyone else, too.
The Friction Tells the Story
The study's data made this clear: 58% of respondents cited delays, changes or cancellations as their most significant stress point.
A pattern emerged. It was not the disruption itself that caused the most significant difficulty. It was the lack of clarity.
One respondent wrote: “It’s the not knowing.” Another described a complete loss of cognitive capacity when a connection was cancelled without clear next steps. A dyslexic traveler discussed the compounding impact of last-minute gate changes. Someone else said they always arrived excessively early to avoid “the chaos of uncertainty.”
These reactions differ in cause, but not in nature. Uncertainty erodes capacity. For neurodivergent travelers, that impact can be sharper, but the underlying flaw is universal.
Who Is Getting This Right?
A theme across the research was that strong examples already exist. They just aren’t usually labelled as “neuro-inclusive.”
United Airlines received repeated praise for its approach to accessible travel, from rehearsal days with autistic travelers to an app that offers real-time information, baggage tracking and TSA wait estimates. Much of this is not positioned as neurodivergence work. Yet every feature maps directly to what our respondents told us reduces cognitive load.
Uber surfaced frequently as a model of autonomy: transparent pricing, live tracking, precise driver details and intuitive flows that give travelers agency at every stage.
And Hyatt, which presented its autism-focused initiatives at GBTA in Denver 2025, demonstrated what operational empathy can look like in practice: staff training, sensory awareness, communication techniques and property-level adjustments that help guests regulate and prepare.
These organizations are not solving for a single condition. They are designing for variability and, in doing so, producing more resilient traveler experiences.
Three Pillars, One Direction
Across the data, three recurrent needs emerged:
- Predictability: Clear, timely information; reduced ambiguity; visibility of next steps.
- Autonomy: Tools and choices that allow travelers to control their environment and make informed decisions.
- Empathy: Human understanding is built into communication, responses and service interactions.
Individually, these are not new ideas. Collectively, they represent a design framework that aligns with how modern travelers, not just neurodivergent ones, navigate complexity.
If you build around uncertainty, you reduce the friction for all. If you give people control, you expand their confidence. If you communicate with care, you strengthen trust. These are commercial levers as much as cognitive ones.
Design for Difference and Benefit Everyone
The business travel industry is entering a period defined by fragmentation, heightened traveler expectations and the collision of human experience with AI-enabled systems. Neurodivergent travelers sit at the extreme edge of that curve, and what we learn from them can be applied to the center.
The research reinforced a simple, pragmatic truth: When you design for people who face the most significant friction, you elevate the journey for everyone.
This isn’t about specialist programs or diagnostic pathways. It’s about building travel experiences that perform under pressure, communicate clearly and adapt to diverse minds.
Predictability, autonomy and empathy are not “accommodations.” They’re future-proofing. And if we get them right, business travel becomes not only more inclusive but materially, measurably better.
To view the report, click here.
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