WEBINAR: When Accommodation Requests Become Conflict

WEBINAR STARTS IN:

11 NOVEMBER 2026, WEDNESDAY | 12PM-1:30PM SYDNEY AUSTRALIA (TIME)

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By the time a workplace accommodation request lands on a mediator’s desk, the dispute is rarely about the accommodation itself. It is about what came before the request, and how the employer responded once it arrived. For practitioners working with neurodivergent employees, this is where the real work happens.

A 90 minute live webinar for HR professionals, mediators, conflict coaches, employment lawyers, counsellors, and EAP practitioners.

Workplace accommodation conflicts involving neurodivergent employees are appearing more frequently in HR processes, mediations, and tribunals. The Australian Fair Work Commission has seen a steady increase in cases involving ADHD, autism, and related conditions. The United Kingdom has recorded a 95 per cent rise in tribunal claims involving neurodiversity discrimination over five years.

These disputes share a recognisable shape. An employee has been struggling, often masking, sometimes already on a performance improvement plan. They disclose, often as a defensive move, and ask for an adjustment. The employer experiences this as a sudden development. Trust on both sides has already eroded. By the time a third party becomes involved, the relationship is in adversarial mode and the original adjustment has become almost impossible to discuss.

This webinar gives practitioners a working framework for understanding these conflicts at the level they actually operate. It draws on current research, recent Australian case law, and the same conceptual foundations that run through the Working With Neurodivergent Clients in Conflict course.

What you will take away

By the end of the session you will be able to:

Recognise the five most common patterns that accommodation conflicts follow, and identify which one you are looking at

Understand why most of these conflicts begin well before the formal request is made, and what that means for how you hear the parties' accounts

Distinguish between behaviour and the manifestation of disability in performance and conduct disputes, including how the Purvis decision shapes Australian discrimination law in this area

Identify the structural choices employers can make (universal design, dynamic workplace design) that prevent these disputes from forming in the first place

Apply a practitioner level framework drawn from the cross cultural translator role, helping parties understand how the work environment itself produces the disadvantage

Who this is for

This session is pitched at practitioners working with workplace conflict, including:

HR professionals managing accommodation requests and grievances
Workplace and commercial mediators
Conflict coaches working with managers or employees
Employment lawyers
EAP counsellors and workplace psychologists
Anyone supporting neurodivergent employees through workplace disputes

No prior knowledge of neurodiversity frameworks is assumed. This is a standalone session, although it builds on the same foundations as the Working With Neurodivergent Clients in Conflict course.

About your trainer:

Dr Samantha Hardy is the Director and Lead Trainer for The Conflict Management Academy. She is an experienced mediator and conflict coach and the founder of the REAL Conflict Coaching System™. She provides conflict support to managers and leaders across the world. She also provides professional development training, supervision and mentorship to mediators and coaches who work with clients in conflict.

Sam is accredited under the Australian Mediation and Dispute Resolver Accreditation System and is a Certified Transformative Mediator by the US Institute of Conflict Transformation. She is a Certified Narrative Coach. In 2021 Sam was awarded the Australian Resolution Institute Award for Service to Dispute Resolution for her leadership and innovation in the field. She was also awarded 2022 Conflict Coach of the Year at the Australian Dispute Resolution Awards.