Sensory audits and low-cost office fixes for teams with neurodivergent staff
TL;DR Hushgrid measures the light, noise and crowding in your office, asks staff anonymously what wears them down, and hands over a short list of cheap fixes plus a private way to ask for adjustments. Employers hiring autistic and other neurodivergent people pay per site, and everyone else in the office gains too.
Indian employers have started hiring neurodivergent people, often through disability-inclusion partners, but the offices they walk into were designed for nobody in particular. In a 2026 study of 34 autistic professionals, harsh lighting, noise, heat and crowding caused shutdowns and, over time, burnout. Rigid room booking kept them out of the quiet rooms that did exist, and the fixes that helped were informal favours from colleagues[1].
Open offices are noisy for everyone, and a review of 46 studies suggests keeping background noise near 45 dB(A)[2]. India's disability law covers autism and specific learning disability and requires every establishment, private ones included, to publish an equal opportunity policy[3].
Few of those policies say a word about the physical space.
What it does, in regulatory terms: workplace environment assessment and adjustment support only. Hushgrid does not screen, diagnose or treat anyone, never asks staff for a diagnosis and stores no health data. Its work supports the employer's duties under the RPwD Act, 2016.
A two-day site visit maps light levels, glare, noise by zone and hour, temperature, smells near pantries and crowding at peak times, using calibrated handheld meters. An anonymous ten-minute survey asks every employee which conditions drain them, without asking why. The report ranks fixes by cost - desk lamps instead of overhead tubes in one bay, a quiet zone with clear rules, room-booking changes, headphone and camera-off norms, signage and a predictable seating plan for those who want one.
The second product is a private request form. An employee asks for an adjustment, a trained HR contact responds within a set time, and Hushgrid reports to leadership only on totals and response times and never on names.
Repeat measurements after 90 days show whether the fixes held.
The buyer is the diversity and inclusion head or an HR leader, sometimes the facilities head. Technology firms and capability centres already working with hiring partners come first. One inclusion social enterprise alone lists 500+ corporate partners[4], so employers clearly pay for disability inclusion work. I couldn't find a public Indian price for sensory audits, so my assumption is ₹2–5 L per site audit and ₹1–2 L a year for the request flow.
The RPwD Act has been in force since 2017, and its policy duty in Section 21 reaches private employers too, so few large firms can ignore it[3]. Hiring partners have moved from awareness workshops to actual placements, and one disability-employment nonprofit reports 830 corporate collaborations[5]. Return-to-office mandates are also bringing more staff back to the same noisy floors.
There's no public figure for spending on neurodiversity or sensory workplace services in India, and no reliable count of neurodivergent adults in work. Child studies give a floor for autism alone, at 0.23% in a Kolkata school sample[6].
The firmer signal is how buyers behave, with 500+ firms working with one disability hiring platform[4]. Treat that as nearby evidence.
One inclusion social enterprise offers physical and digital accessibility audits and a neurodiversity workshop to corporates[4]. A disability-employment nonprofit works with hundreds of employers across 21 disabilities[5]. Both focus mainly on hiring, sensitisation and mobility or visual access.
The gap is a measured sensory audit with a follow-up visit and a private adjustment process, sold as a fixed product.
| Difficulty | Moderate (30/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹30–55 L |
| Time to launch | 3–5 months |
The measuring is simple. Credibility and trust are the hard part. If autistic consultants and occupational therapists don't shape the method then the advice will be generic, and nobody needs another generic checklist. Employees must believe the survey really is anonymous, and HR has to act on requests.
Hushgrid needs no clinical licence because it never assesses or treats anyone. Its work sits next to the employer's legal duties.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
AI should never guess at anyone's condition or diagnosis from survey answers. Hushgrid does environment assessment only, and that line holds for its software too.
Want to work out the AI layer for Hushgrid? Talk to Yash →
I think this is worth a go for a founder who is neurodivergent or has worked closely with this community, ideally paired with an occupational therapist. It's a poor fit for a facilities firm hoping to resell acoustic panels. First prove that one employer pays for a second visit because staff noticed the first round of fixes.
Plan for roughly ₹30–55 L, covering calibrated meters, a small team that includes neurodivergent consultants and an occupational therapist, and the first employer pilots.
No clinical licence, as long as you never assess or treat people. You need company registration, GST and DPDP compliance, and your work should support the client's RPwD Act policy.
Yes. Check your local disability and data protection laws, since employer duties on reasonable adjustments differ by country.
The free Hushgrid validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the disability-law and data-protection checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for HR and inclusion heads, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Hushgrid or something close to it? The make-or-break work is earning trust from neurodivergent staff while selling to HR, and that balance is something I can help you think through. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.