Neurodiversity describes variation in brain function among people, including common conditions such as Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and dyslexia. While Software Engineering (SE) literature has started to explore the experiences of neurodivergent software engineers, there is a lack of research that compares their challenges to those of neurotypical software engineers. To address this gap, we analyze existing data from the 2022 Stack Overflow Developer survey that collected data on neurodiversity. We quantitatively compare the answers of professional engineers with ASD (n=374), ADHD (n=1305), and dyslexia (n=363) with neurotypical engineers. Our findings indicate that neurodivergent engineers face more difficulties than neurotypical engineers. Specifically, engineers with ADHD report that they face more interruptions caused by waiting for answers, and that they less frequently interact with individuals outside their team. This study provides a baseline for future research comparing neurodivergent engineers with neurotypical ones. Several factors in the Stack Overflow survey and in our analysis are likely to lead to conservative estimates of the actual effects between neurodivergent and neurotypical engineers, e.g., the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and our focus on employed professionals.

翻译：神经多样性描述了人群间大脑功能的差异，包括自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）、注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）和阅读障碍等常见状况。尽管软件工程文献已开始探讨神经多样性软件工程师的体验，但将其面临的挑战与神经典型性软件工程师进行比较的研究仍显不足。为填补这一空白，我们分析了2022年Stack Overflow开发者调查中关于神经多样性的现有数据。我们定量比较了患有ASD（n=374）、ADHD（n=1305）和阅读障碍（n=363）的专业工程师与神经典型性工程师的反馈。研究结果表明，神经多样性工程师比神经典型性工程师面临更多困难。具体而言，患有ADHD的工程师报告称他们因等待答复而遭受更多工作中断，且与团队外部人员的互动频率较低。本研究为未来比较神经多样性与神经典型性工程师的研究提供了基准。Stack Overflow调查及我们分析中的若干因素可能导致对两类工程师实际差异的保守估计，例如COVID-19疫情的影响以及我们对在职专业人士的关注。