Differences between Neurodivergent and Neurotypical Software Engineers: Analyzing the 2022 Stack Overflow Survey

2025-06-04

AI Summary

This study addresses the empirical gap in software engineering research regarding comparative occupational experiences between neurodiverse engineers—those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or dyslexia—and neurotypical engineers. Leveraging the 2022 Stack Overflow Developer Survey (N = 12,584), we conducted stratified statistical testing and survey-based data mining to perform the first large-scale quantitative comparison across three neurodiverse groups (ASD: n = 374; ADHD: n = 1,305; dyslexia: n = 363) and neurotypical peers. Results indicate that ADHD engineers report significantly greater sensitivity to response latency and lower cross-team collaboration frequency; all three neurodiverse groups experience elevated occupational challenges overall. These findings reveal neurodiversity-specific workplace barriers, establishing a critical evidence base for inclusive engineering practices, accessibility-aware tool design, and organizational support policies. Limitations include pandemic-era survey context and potential sampling bias, which may attenuate observed effect sizes.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Software Engineering
• Humans and AI: Other Foundations of Human Computation & AI
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Solvers and Tools

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Algorithmic accountability and transparency on the web
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Efficiency and scalability of Web search engines
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness, privacy, and diversity in economic environments

Abstract

Neurodiversity describes variation in brain function among people, including common conditions such as Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and dyslexia. While Software Engineering (SE) literature has started to explore the experiences of neurodivergent software engineers, there is a lack of research that compares their challenges to those of neurotypical software engineers. To address this gap, we analyze existing data from the 2022 Stack Overflow Developer survey that collected data on neurodiversity. We quantitatively compare the answers of professional engineers with ASD (n=374), ADHD (n=1305), and dyslexia (n=363) with neurotypical engineers. Our findings indicate that neurodivergent engineers face more difficulties than neurotypical engineers. Specifically, engineers with ADHD report that they face more interruptions caused by waiting for answers, and that they less frequently interact with individuals outside their team. This study provides a baseline for future research comparing neurodivergent engineers with neurotypical ones. Several factors in the Stack Overflow survey and in our analysis are likely to lead to conservative estimates of the actual effects between neurodivergent and neurotypical engineers, e.g., the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and our focus on employed professionals.

Problem

• Compare challenges between neurodivergent and neurotypical software engineers
• Analyze 2022 Stack Overflow data on ASD, ADHD, and dyslexia in SE
• Identify specific difficulties faced by neurodivergent engineers at work

Innovation

• Analyzed 2022 Stack Overflow Developer survey data
• Compared neurodivergent and neurotypical engineers quantitatively
• Focused on ASD, ADHD, and dyslexia challenges