DiscoverThe Resilience LabFirst Through the Wall: Kay Sargent on Neuro-Inclusive Design
First Through the Wall: Kay Sargent on Neuro-Inclusive Design

First Through the Wall: Kay Sargent on Neuro-Inclusive Design

Update: 2025-09-11
Share

Description

In Moneyball, the owner of the Boston Red Sox tells Billy Beane, “The first one through the wall always gets bloody.” That’s where Kay Sargent stands today. As Director of Workplace at HOK and author of Designing Neuro-Inclusive Workplaces, she’s breaking through a wall our industry has quietly built — the unspoken assumptions about how spaces should work for people who think, sense, and process the world differently.

Neurodiversity in the workplace isn’t tidy. It’s complex, it’s personal, and it sparks strong opinions. Kay steps into that complexity with eight years of research, a career of leadership, and the lived experience of raising five children, some of whom navigate the world differently. She’s not just adding to the conversation — she’s creating a new category of it, one that challenges the safe, performative gestures and invites real, sometimes uncomfortable, change.

In this episode, you’ll hear how designing for the edges benefits everyone in the middle, why “one size misfits all,” and how even small, intentional changes can transform a person’s ability to thrive. If you’re in facilities, corporate real estate, design, or workplace strategy, this is more than a professional conversation — it’s a chance to rethink the spaces you influence, the people you serve, and the courage it takes to go first.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Comments 
00:00
00:00
1.0x

0.5x

0.8x

1.0x

1.25x

1.5x

2.0x

3.0x

Sleep Timer

Off

End of Episode

5 Minutes

10 Minutes

15 Minutes

30 Minutes

45 Minutes

60 Minutes

120 Minutes

First Through the Wall: Kay Sargent on Neuro-Inclusive Design

First Through the Wall: Kay Sargent on Neuro-Inclusive Design