As more people are diagnosed with dementia while still of working age, James Fletcher, Assistant Professor of Digital Futures at the University of Bath, explores how workplace adjustments and digital technologies could help people with dementia remain in employment for longer, while preserving choice and autonomy.
A growing number of people are being diagnosed with dementia while they are still of working age. The number of people with a diagnosis before the age of 65 in England increased from 33,950 in June 2024 to 34,336 in June 2025 and 34,783 in June 2026.
Although research remains limited, existing evidence suggests that people diagnosed with dementia are more likely to experience prolonged leave from work, redundancy or early retirement than colleagues of the same age. Some people report that they could have continued working if they had been given the opportunity and appropriate support.
This matters as the UK seeks to support longer working lives and improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Yet people with dementia have received relatively little attention in these policy discussions.
We need to rethink what a dementia diagnosis means for working life.
Rather than assuming that a diagnosis means someone can no longer work, employers and policymakers should ask a more practical question: what could be changed about the workplace to make it more accessible?
Dementia does not necessarily mean the end of working life
Dementia can affect memory, communication, orientation and other aspects of cognition. These changes can create difficulties at work. But the extent to which they affect someone’s ability to work can also depend on the environment and the support available.
Consider someone who finds it difficult to remember appointments. In one workplace, they might be expected to maintain a personal diary. In another, they might have access to a shared calendar and automated reminders. The same change in memory can therefore have different consequences in different working environments.
This is an important way of thinking about cognitive disability. Rather than treating dementia as something that automatically makes someone unable to work, we can also consider how workplaces can create or reduce barriers.
This is not a new approach. Workplaces already make physical adjustments for employees with disabilities, such as ramps, adjustable desks and wider doors. It can be harder to envisage equivalent adjustments for cognitive accessibility. Digital technology may offer some opportunities to address this gap.
Digital tools already support our cognition
Almost every job now involves digital technology. Yet assumptions about older people’s ability to use technology can be outdated and can overlook the ways in which digital tools can support people at work. People with dementia can face similar assumptions, particularly when technologies designed for them are associated primarily with care rather than employment.
But many people with dementia use smartphones, apps, the web, social media and other familiar digital tools in their everyday lives. A dementia diagnosis does not necessarily prevent someone from using technology, just as it does not necessarily mean that they cannot continue working.
Most of us already use technology to support tasks that once depended entirely on our own memory and attention. Alarms remind us of appointments, web browsers remember information for us, helping us to fill out forms, and navigation apps help us find our way. In many ways, digital technologies already act as supports for our memory, attention and decision-making.
For someone with dementia, these tools may be particularly useful. Shared calendars and automated reminders could help people manage busy schedules. Alternative authentication methods, including biometric systems, could reduce the need to remember passwords. Voice interfaces could provide an alternative to touchscreens for people who experience difficulties with fine motor skills.
These are not necessarily specialist technologies. Many are already part of everyday life. The opportunity is to consider how existing tools can be used, where appropriate, to make work less cognitively demanding and more accessible.
Artificial intelligence could extend these possibilities
The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) creates further possibilities for supporting people at work. Large language models such as ChatGPT can summarise information, draft documents and help formulate written communications. Some of these tasks may become more difficult for people experiencing cognitive changes.
For example, someone with dementia who has difficulty articulating the next word in a sentence might benefit from AI-assisted word prompting. With appropriate safeguards, an AI assistant could potentially be trained on an individual’s email history to provide more personalised support.
AI could also help make written communications easier to understand. Dementia-friendly communication guidance commonly recommends approaches such as shorter, single clause sentences and straightforward language using minimal syllable synonyms. AI systems could potentially help adapt existing communications using these principles.
Any use of AI would need to consider privacy, confidentiality, data protection, accuracy and the preferences of the employee. AI should support people's autonomy rather than make assumptions about what they can or cannot do.
The broader point is that many of these capabilities already exist. The challenge is to consider how can they be used appropriately as part of wider workplace support. Doing so could help retain the experience, organisational knowledge and professional relationships that people with dementia bring to their workplaces. A dementia diagnosis should not cause these contributions to be automatically discarded from the labour market.
Plan for adjustments early
There are important caveats to the promise of more dementia-friendly digital workplaces.
First, we should not simply introduce technology and assume that the right solutions will follow. People with dementia have not always been involved in decisions about technologies designed to support them. Well-intentioned interventions can fail when they do not reflect the needs, preferences and circumstances of the people who will use them.
The principle of co-production should apply to workplace support as well as technology development. Employees should be involved in identifying what would help them, rather than employers assuming that a particular technology or adjustment will be appropriate.
Second, employers can prepare for these conversations before they are needed. A dementia diagnosis can be a stressful period, involving significant personal and professional decisions. Employers and managers should not have to develop an approach from scratch at such a time.
Many organisations already have an established roster of reasonable adjustments that can be implemented for employees with disabilities and long-term health conditions. These adjustments can also provide a basis for supporting employees diagnosed with dementia. For some people, this might include shared calendars, automated reminders, voice interfaces, alternative authentication such as biometrics, or AI-assisted tools. For others, different adjustments may be more appropriate.
Policy needs to catch up
The UK already has legal protections requiring employers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees. However, dementia has received relatively little specific attention in discussions about employment and working life. This is a missed opportunity.
As the population ages and more people live with dementia, there is a clear interest for workers, employers and the wider economy in avoiding unnecessary exits from employment.
National dementia strategies should include specific guidance on supporting people who want to remain in employment. Employers should have clear processes for discussing employment preferences and reasonable adjustments following a diagnosis, with appropriate support for both employees and managers.
Government can also help by recognising dementia more explicitly as a workplace and employment issue within relevant policy. This could include bringing together expertise from dementia research, disability policy, employment practice and technology development to identify what support is effective and where further evidence is needed.
None of this means that everyone diagnosed should remain in work. Dementia affects people differently, and not everyone will be able or want to continue working. The objective should be choice.
A dementia diagnosis should not automatically dictate an unwanted exit from employment. Digital technology can be part of the solution, but only if it is developed and deployed alongside appropriate workplace adjustments, employee involvement and effective policy.
As the UK population ages, supporting people to remain in work when they want to do so should be part of how we think about dementia, disability and working life. The question is not simply whether someone with dementia can work. It is also what employers, policymakers and technology developers can do to make working possible.
About the author: Dr James Fletcher's research covers several areas of the political economy of ageing and dementia, with an emphasis on using social theory and creative methods to understand later life disability as a political entity. His book The Biopolitics of Dementia won 'Best Outstanding Output' at the Research Excellence Awards 2024.
All articles posted on this blog give the views of the author(s), and not the position of the IPR, nor of the University of Bath.
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