Sensory Street, 2021

In this collection, we used an online focus group method hosting 7 focus groups to collect qualitative data. Our study included 24 autistic participants (aged 18 - 44, 70% female) with 2 – 4 participants attending each focus group. All participants reported having an autism diagnosis and scored above the cut-off (≥ 6) on the Autism Spectrum Quotient – 10 (AQ-10) (M = 8.71, SD = 1.15, range = 7 – 10). Participants were recruited online via social media channels. Originally 29 participants volunteered to participate, but we excluded 1 prior to taking part for not having an autism diagnosis, and 4 participants did not attend on the day. The results of the content analysis showed that supermarkets, eateries (i.e., restaurants, cafés, pubs), highstreets and city/town centres, public transport, healthcare settings (i.e., doctor’s surgeries and hospitals), and retail shops and shopping centres, are experienced to be commonly disabling sensory environments for autistic adults. Additionally, through reflexive thematic analysis we identified 6 key principles that underlie how disabling or enabling sensory environments are: Sensoryscape (sensory environment), Space, Predictability, Understanding, Adjustments, and Recovery. We represented these principles as a web to emphasise the interconnected, dimensional spectrum of the different themes. Lastly, we used case study analysis to evidence these principles in the commonly disabling sensory environments for richer detail and context and to provide credibility for the principles. Our findings have important implications for businesses, policy, and built environment designers to reduce the sensory impact of public places to make them more enabling for autistic people. By making public spaces more enabling, we may be able to improve quality of life for autistic individuals.