In Episode 3, workplace investigator Rupa Karyampudi joins our Investigator Chronicles host, Christine Thomlinson, to talk about designing a more accessible investigation process for participants with disabilities and neurodivergence. Drawing on universal design principles, Rupa explains how features built in from the start, like plain-language communication, flexible interview formats, and inclusive check-ins, can support a much broader range of participants than a one-size-fits-all process.

Christine and Rupa also dig into how disability and neurodivergence can affect demeanour, communication style, and recall, and why investigators need to resist labelling those differences as signs of dishonesty. They talk through adjusting interview technique in real time, and how to prepare participants before presenting them with evidence that contradicts their account.

Including:

• What is “universal design” and how does it make an interview process more accessible to all parties
• How Rupa adjusts her interview technique in real-time to help participants who find open-ended questions overwhelming, better tell their version of events
• Why demeanour should not be a factor when making credibility assessments, and how disability, neurodivergence, and trauma can play a role in affecting demeanour
• How Rupa sets expectations from the very start that a follow-up interview may happen and how she handles sharing contradictory evidence

Rupa Karyampudi is a lawyer and workplace investigator, and a founding partner of Prisma Workplace Legal LLP, a bilingual firm conducting workplace and institutional investigations across Canada in both English and French. She leads complex workplace, institutional, and regulatory investigations into discrimination, harassment, sexual misconduct, reprisal, and professional misconduct.

Learn more about Rupa and her firm: https://www.prismaworkplacelegal.com/about

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