Exciting news! We have acquired new funding from Durham University to develop an online training tool for businesses. This co-designed training for managers and employees will provide information and practical advice on making spaces more sensory-inclusive for autistic people! We are working with Autistica, who are partnering with us on this project, as well as community consultants and businesses – we can’t wait to update you on the progress!

We wanted to learn whether our research findings were also found in the answers to the eleven questions we asked on social media.

“Bookshops are wonderful (except the ones with cafes in them, those aren’t really bookshops) Bookshops are usually quiet, dimly lit, have soft furnishings so don’t echo much, and don’t have many strong smells or sudden loud noises.”

Social Media Post

Our work has identified commonly disabling and enabling public places and 6 principles that appear to influence how disabling or enabling they are for autistic people with sensory processing differences. We found that our 6 principles were also talked about in the answers to the questions we asked on social media.

We also found the most commonly disabling and enabling public places, due to the sensory environment. Many of the same places were also talked about on social media, but there were some differences in how many people talked about these places.

Like in our research study, supermarkets and eateries (such as pubs, cafes, and restaurants) were talked about as being two most challenging public places. Also, outdoor spaces such as public parks, gardens and forests/woodland were talked about as the most accessible location. 

The comparison between the top disabling places:

Research findings	Social media findings
Supermarkets/Grocery Shops	Supermarkets/Grocery Shops
Eateries	Eateries
High Streets and City/Town centres	Retail Shops/Shopping Centres
Healthcare settings	Public Transport
Public Transport	High Streets and City/Town centres
Retail Shops/Shopping Centres	Healthcare settings
	Educational Settings (e.g. schools)

The comparison between the top enabling places:

Research findings	Social media findings
Outdoor Spaces (e.g. gardens and parks)	Outdoor Spaces (e.g. gardens and parks)
Retail Shops (including bookshops)	Libraries
Art Galleries/Museums	Art Galleries/Museums
Concerts/Clubbing	Bookshops

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Learning about the views of autistic children

As well as learning about how the sensory aspects of public places can affect autistic adults, we were also interested in finding out more about their impact on autistic children. We were lucky to link with the Queensmill Trust who support a range of children across greater London with a specialism in supporting autistic pupils. They were kind enough to host a discussion session where staff members and parents discussed how the sensory environment of public places impacted on their children’s engagement and enjoyment of these locations. The session included staff who work in Early Years, Primary and Secondary settings to explore experiences across different age ranges. Several of the principles identified in our work with autistic adults are echoed in the information from the discussion group about autistic children.

Guest post written by Elise Robinson, Creative Arts Lead at The Queensmill Trust:

Staff identified that there are a range of factors which can impact on a child’s ability to engage with and enjoy specific locations. This can include managing anxiety around unknown or unexpected inputs such as sounds or smells. They also reported that it is not just the environment itself that can have an impact on a child but also the reactions and behaviours of other people in the space. This includes other members of the public as well as staff (e.g. sales assistants or wait staff).

The group also identified that people’s attitudes and responses play a huge role in causing or worsening episodes of dysregulation. Staff were unanimous that the public affect our pupils’ experience more than the environment itself. People produce unpredictable sensory information through speech, touch, physical closeness and more.  Therefore, educating people about how their actions may have an impact on autistic experiences is a priority.

They also shared concern with how generic adaptations to support autistic people, in particular recommendations about ‘low lighting’ and ‘low volume’ over-simplify autistic people’s experiences and does not show how people can have diverse and different reactions to the same place or event. Making changes to lighting and volumes have little impact if the staff and public are not also patient, kind and understanding. 

When reflecting on difficult times in the community, people’s strongest memories were of members of the public coming up to them and asking questions such as ‘what is wrong with them?’, ‘why are they behaving like that?’ or ‘you should get them under control’. This comments and criticism often exacerbated difficult situations and added to the stress in both staff members and pupils. It highlights how people’s attitudes and responses to sensory processing difficulties can be one of the biggest stressors in the community, especially in public spaces such as supermarkets.

Sensory experiences in public places and how they affect children’s engagement and enjoyment

Positive

• People identified the benefit of flexible attitudes from staff at Westfield such as giving time and space for their children as well as asking staff how to best support their pupils before attempting to use strategies themselves
• Some locations such as Chelsea football stadium have a permanent sensory room with a good view of the pitch and a range of different sensory toys for pupils to choose from.  This offers a great alternative for football fans who struggle with crowds and noise.
• Some locations have begun normalising having a variety of seating options available in community settings such as bean bags, swivel chairs, rocking chairs and yoga balls.
• Jump the queue options in venues are fantastic as waiting is very difficult for our pupils unless they have plenty of motivators

Negative

• Pupils can be overloaded in public spaces by the quantity of social information they are required to process
• Unexpected loud sounds and crowds of people in public spaces can induce panic and cause children to be overwhelmed
• Difficulties with interoception (awareness of our own body’s state) can lead to pupils forming negative relationships to spaces.  For example, one pupil in school really enjoys soft play, but after overheating in the room once, she now associates this pain with the soft play room and will not enter.  Some children can struggle to detach a physical experience in the space from the space itself.
• Responses that can occur when pupils are overloaded can include self-injurious behaviour, violence, shouting, damaging environment, sadness, withdrawal etc.  It is usually the way that these are managed by the surrounding people which can lead to these becoming traumatic episodes.  The memory associated with this can then create a barrier for them when trying to re-engage with community settings in the future.
• The timings and dates of relaxed performances such as at the theatre or cinema are often very difficult for families to attend
• The placement of sensory rooms can often be impractical. For example, the sensory room at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London is in the middle of the space and poorly signposted.  Pupils have to walk through 50% of the entire exhibition before finding it.