Envisioning a Requirements Elicitation Method for Neurodivergent-Inclusive Software
Inês Rocha, Ana Moreira, Jo�ão Araújo, Grischa Liebel · 2025
Neurodiversity, increasingly recognized in society, encompasses a range of neurological differences, including autism, ADHD, and dyslexia. In software engineering, addressing neurodiversity is crucial to designing accessible and inclusive products that accommodate diverse user needs. Despite growing interest, a clear understanding of how to create neurodivergent-inclusive software remains underdeveloped. To help bridge this gap, we developed a conceptual model that identifies key neurodivergent concepts and relationships to guide software requirements elicitation. This model was evaluated through a survey involving 100 participants, including 37 neurodivergent individuals. These initial evaluation results are encouraging and indicate the model has the potential to advance the creation of software accessible to neurodivergent users. Moreover, the survey also revealed several necessary improvements towards successful requirements elicitation support. To this end, we aim to ensure the completeness of the collected information and identify potential contradictions among accommodating strategies, as a foundation for developing concrete support tools for requirements elicitation. Based on the complete conceptual model, these tools will integrate into a dedicated elicitation method, built on top of traditional elicitation methods, such as focus groups or workshops, and will be further enhanced by a large language model-based assistant. These results will support requirements engineers to effectively elicit neurodivergent-inclusive requirements.