Get involved

Update January 2023: We have recently secured a new Research England grant to co-produce an evidence-based digital guide that we can share with supermarkets to help them improve accessibility and inclusion for autistic shoppers.

We are now looking for autism community consultants to work with us on this project. Please read below for more details and email keren.maclennan@durham.ac.uk to register your interest.

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Co-designing a digital guide for supermarkets

Over the next few months we are co-producing an evidence-based digital guide that we can share with supermarkets to help them improve accessibility and inclusion for autistic shoppers. The guide will be provide education on autistic sensory processing experiences, and outline ways that supermarkets can be adapted (e.g., provision of ‘quiet spaces’, accommodating communication and pace needs, providing information about busy times or changes in store layout).

We are looking to work with autistic people and parents/carers of autistic people to develop this guide through a series of online meetings (via Microsoft Teams). We welcome people with different communication preferences (i.e., using spoken language or communicating via the chat function). If you want to get involved using different mean (e.g., email exchanges) please let us know. All consultants will be paid for their time.

We will soon be providing more information and dates of the meetings.

Email keren.maclennan@durham.ac.uk to register your interest.

Working with Autistic People

Working with autistic people is a key ethos of the Sensory Street project. As well as recruiting autistic people to take part in our studies, we also ensure that autistic people are involved at different levels of the project, informing what we do and how we do it. We have involved autistic people as core members of the research team, as consultants (e.g., reviewing designs, materials, and results), as content creators, and as participants. We also make sure that for all involvement in the project, autistic people are being fairly paid for contributing their time and expertise. The reason why we do this is to make sure that the project ultimately benefits autistic people and aligns with their lived experiences.