As highlighted in section 1, it’s crucial to include people with epilepsy. This means that we don’t perceive people with epilepsy in an working environment as a “special case” or ” exception” and further treat them as part of an existing team with different needs and the desire for mutual support. In the context of this section, this means opening up our perspective and asking what a team needs to work effectively with people with epilepsy.

Effective collaboration, in turn, makes it easier for people with epilepsy to feel comfortable, integrated, and work efficiently. To prepare the team for working with people who have epilepsy, certain steps are important. Training and education are key elements: employers should provide training and information to raise understanding about epilepsy among all employees. This can lead to effective collaboration by fostering awareness of each other’s needs. In essence, it’s very much about sensitisation to each other’s requirements.

Besides, to effectively integrate people with epilepsy into a team and structure tasks appropriately, it makes sense to take an additional step, specifically focusing on the practical work level. This involves understanding the work rhythm of everyone involved, to create awareness and empathy for everybody’s needs. What does seem way too self-evident, to be even thought about sometimes need to be articulated the most: What do I need for work? Do I like to begin the day with a chat among colleagues or do I enjoy a quite and concentrated working atmosphere during the early hours of the day. Do I like to have meetings bevor or after lunchtime? All these little things, might not be so litte and can weight a heavy burden, if they are not understood and respected among team members. That way everybody has his or her own needs when it comes to the practical level of working together. In that sense people with epilepsy are not different from other team members. It is just, that some of their needs may result from the epilepsy, but others are not.

One way to achieve this is to expand the established tool Team Canvas (section 1) by adding a targeted question about individual needs in the daily work routine. This allows people with epilepsy to clearly communicate their specific requirements and place them in the context of the needs of other team members. This way one can avoid the trap of “othering” team members with epilepsy and provoke a feeling of being some kind of outsider or someone who needs a special treatment and is somehow a burden to the whole team.

Incorporating this question into the Team Canvas process promotes openness and transparency within the team and helps better accommodate individual needs. This contributes to creating an inclusive and supportive work environment where all team members have equal opportunities to collaborate successfully.