The autistic insurance boss blazing a trail for neurodiversity best practice in the workplace
"We walk among you!" The autistic insurance boss blazing a trail for neurodiversity best practices in the workplace.
Marking this year's global Dive In festival highlighting neurodiversity best practices in insurance workplaces, we meet Cura MD, Kathryn Knowles…
Born with a painful joint condition, Kathryn Knowles often missed out on the things that matter when you're young, like being with friends and learning in school.
But surprisingly, having spent almost a third of her school days off sick, she was still the smartest kid in the class, eventually earning a business PhD at university.
Motivated to support other disabled folks, Kathryn launched her own bespoke protection brokerage, Cura Insurance and a training consultancy, Advice for Advisers.
But things were bothering the MD beneath the surface of her success. Crippling bouts of anxiety, agoraphobia and other mental health issues impacted her work ability.
And it would take 17 years before she found out why – when an autism diagnosis at the age of 36 opened the door to a neuro occupational therapy and sensory specialist at Krysalis Consultancy…
What people understood in the past was different. If I had gone for an autism assessment as a child, I think I would have been turned away because a lot of it wasn't obvious. 
Cura MD, Kathryn Knowles
Being neurodiverse would be second nature to Cura MD Kathryn Knowles – if only she had known about it for the first 36 years of her life.
Nevertheless, since her diagnosis of autism last year, she has made it a mission to nail her understanding of neurodiversity – both her own and her employees'.
But now, she's blazing a new trail to help other insurance employers get to grips with neurodiversity by sharing her discoveries via platforms, including Krysalis partner, GAIN, the Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity during the global Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2022 [2] [3].
It's a far cry from how Kathryn's neurodiversity trail began – on a flight home from a holiday 17 years ago when she experienced a sudden sensory meltdown.
Many autistic people experience meltdowns in situations of sensory or information overload [4].
Kathryn had developed food-related stomach pains during the flight, and as the symptoms worsened in the plane's confined space, with its lights and noise and so many other people, including a watchful flight attendant close by, rising anxiety soon began to overwhelm her.
"I was freaking out!" she recalls, "But it was all internal, so it wasn't obvious. The steward was staring at me like she couldn't figure out what was happening."
Kathryn was clueless too. However, the sensory overload had been so intense it triggered a chronic condition in her known as GAD – generalised anxiety disorder.
And so began her 17-year search for answers; a mission, she says, was made more difficult by a lack of understanding of autism among some health professionals she has encountered.
"What people understood in the past was different. If I had gone for an autism assessment as a child, I think I would have been turned away because a lot of it wasn't obvious." she says.
"Girls with autism tend to mask [hide their autistic traits]. I'm also highly empathetic, yet some people automatically assume that autistic people don't understand others."
Then Kathryn experienced the sensory meltdown on the holiday flight, followed by years of misunderstanding her symptoms. "So, when I was first diagnosed as autistic, I was really quite angry," she admits.
"I was 36, and I thought, well, I've been here for 17 years with panic attacks and anxiety, not knowing what's going on with me and if they had just listened at that point, what could have been different?
"But I am also very much a believer in things happening for a reason. I've built my company, and the way that I am with people with health conditions is because I've experienced all of that.
"It's not been a nice situation. I wish I hadn't gone through it, but it's happened, and I need to own that."
For Kathryn, 'owning' something means setting her mental cogs in rapid motion to analyse it from every aspect and, if needed, identify solutions - a quick-fire process she attributes to her autism.
So, owning her autism meant finding out how it impacted her daily life. And who better to ask than a neuro occupational therapist (OT) with sensory expertise? Enter Krysalis Clinical Manager, Nichola Shellum…
OT and autism
I hadn't been given any support after my diagnosis. It was a case of 'There you go. You're autistic. Go forth. But Nichola helped me to understand the way my mind is working.
Neuro occupational therapists help people understand their neuro condition, how it may impact their daily living activities, and how they can manage it [5].
For Kathryn, working with Nichola helped her to identify the "autism-type traits" she had been showing all her life, not least her feelings of social awkwardness.
And a Krysalis Sensory Preferences Assessment revealed how her autism affects her sensitivity to stimuli such as pain, smell, and sounds – an explanation, at last, for that sky-high meltdown all those years ago.
"I hadn't been given any support after my diagnosis. It was a case of 'There you go. You're autistic. Go forth.'
"But since speaking to Nichola, it's made me realise I do need some noise cancelling headphones. I do need to have a quiet space at times and a routine and a diary.
"It's made it easier to be firmer with myself as well; to say, no, I'm reaching burnout at 2 pm because of the autism. I have to take a break.
"And it's helped me to manage my anxiety and work out whether it's sensory overload instead. I can take steps then to try to help."
Adapting at work
In an ideal world, you would get someone from Krysalis to come in and assess every one. Even if you don't, it doesn't cost a lot of money to make adaptations.
Adapting workplaces to accommodate neurodiverse workers is a statutory obligation for employers, but where do you start? Kathryn suggests and Nichola supports:
1. The human touch
"There are certain occupations, especially the insurance world, where it's very likely there are people who are autistic but not diagnosed," she says.
"That's because their minds often work so well with numbers and handling lots of information. So, you could say, we walk among you!
"Our approach is to make sure we talk individually to everybody who works with us to find out if they have any particular needs that would make doing their job easier for them.
"We always say, 'you don't need to tell us about health conditions but what we do ask is, if you have a health condition that is going to potentially impact work or safety, please let us know.'
We also consider a person's personality and how it might influence their role or how they communicate with others.
Conversely, Kathryn urges employees struggling at work due to autism or another neuro condition to explain to their employer how it affects them.
"My autism has given me a very good academic mind, but there are negatives, the biggest of which has been its impact on my mental health due to my lack of diagnosis and understanding," she explains.
"I would advise anyone struggling at work due to autism or another condition to go and tell someone.
"Say to them, 'I'm not asking for the earth, just for a bit of support. Let me test out some things I feel could help me, please, and see how it goes.'"
And for the employer too time-poor to tackle workplace neurodiversity needs right now, Kathryn recommends an alternative:
2. The ambassador role
"As a small business owner myself, I know that having yet another thing to do is very hard because there are usually a couple people at the top juggling five different jobs.
"But really, it's a legal and equality obligation so it does need to be done.
"So, why not empower one of your employees? Say, we really would like to do more around inclusion and diversity, and we'd really like somebody to become an advocate in this area.
"There are so many organisations you can reach out to for guidance, such as Purple [6] which focuses on disability in the workplace or look to companies that have won awards for their accessibility approaches.
"But it's not just about the neurodiverse people you employ. It's about making your entire workforce more productive and helping everyone to understand the best ways of working together."
Kathryn also points to the wealth of free online software and tutorials to support accessibility and neurodiversity in the workplace, and so recommends:
3. Training gains
"In training, everyone learns in different ways, so we combine written work with a lot of visual and hands-on learning," she says. "And if we know someone struggles with writing, there is software that can help."
Other accessibility aids include noise cancelling headsets for sound sensitivity, and voice messaging or video recordings to replace written messages.
Kathryn concludes:
In an ideal world you would get someone from Krysalis to come in and assess everyone. Even if you don't, it doesn't cost a lot of money to make adaptations.
"But as I always say, you're either an organisation that wants to do right by your employees or you're not."
Further reading…
Figures from the UK's National Autistic Society show there are around 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK, with one in 100 people on the autism spectrum. Here is how neuro occupational therapy can help them…
Neuro occupational therapy: supporting autistic people. (krysalisconsultancy.co.uk)
Find out how occupational laws help to guide employers through the process of adapting work for workers with disabilities, including neurodiversity…
Adapting work for workers with disabilities (krysalisconsultancy.co.uk)
