A room can look calm and orderly while being difficult for someone to use. A persistent hum, a reflection on the desk, an uncomfortable chair or the smell of cleaning products may occupy attention that the person needs for learning, working or simply being there.
I developed an environmental checklist to encourage practical improvements in the places autistic people use. My starting point is the person who will use the space: what do they need to do, what gets in the way, and what changes would make participation easier?
Use the questions below for a home, classroom, workplace, meeting room or event. Choose the relevant questions and adapt them. People have different sensory preferences, and the same person’s needs can vary with the activity, the time of day and how tired they are.
Start with the person and the activity
Ask about a specific situation: “What makes it difficult to work at this desk?” is more useful than “Do you have sensory issues?” Find out what already helps, what the person would like to try and which problem matters most.
Offer ways to answer other than an immediate spoken explanation. Someone might prefer to write later, point to a photograph, demonstrate the problem or use their usual communication aid. A trusted supporter can help, while keeping the person’s own preferences central. Silence or an absence of visible distress gives us little information about comfort.
If the person finds it difficult to identify the source of discomfort, look together for patterns: a particular seat, a busy time, equipment switching on or a change after cleaning. Treat an observer’s explanation as something to check rather than a conclusion about what the person feels.
Walk through the environment
Check the space while it is being used. An empty room may sound and feel quite different from the same room full of people. Include arrival, waiting areas, toilets, transitions and the route to somewhere quieter.
- Sound: What can be heard from fans, ventilation, equipment, traffic, conversations and neighbouring rooms? Are there intermittent sounds that a short inspection might miss? Could equipment be moved, background music removed, a quieter seat offered or a noisy activity scheduled separately? If ear protection helps, also agree how the person will receive essential communication and emergency information.
- Light, glare and movement: Is the lighting comfortable for the person doing this particular activity? Ask about glare, reflections, visible flicker, screens and movement in the field of view. Try a different seat, adjustable blinds or a different light setting where available. Keep text, faces, steps and signs sufficiently visible for the people using the space; a preference for dimmer lighting is not universal.
- Smell, air and temperature: Ask about fragrances, cleaning products, food smells, stale air, heat, cold and draughts. Can an avoidable fragrance be removed, cleaning done at another time or ventilation adjusted? Check whether a proposed solution creates another problem, such as replacing a smell with an air freshener or introducing a noisy fan.
- Touch, seating and personal space: Are the chair, desk, floor and frequently handled objects comfortable to use? Is there enough room to avoid unwanted contact? Could the person choose another seat, change position or move when needed? Ask before adding cushions, textured materials or other sensory equipment; the intended user may dislike them.
- Visual organisation: Can the person find what they need without searching through distracting clutter? Are essential objects kept in predictable places? Use clear labels or pictures where helpful, and explain changes to the layout. Retain the contrast and information needed to identify doors, controls and hazards.
- People and activity: Does crowding, movement nearby or several people speaking at once make participation difficult? Consider seating choices, smaller groups, quieter appointment times or a way to wait elsewhere. Identify the part of the activity that requires people to be together so that other parts can be arranged more flexibly.
- Control and breaks: Can the person adjust anything themselves, ask for a change or take a break without having to explain everything again? Agree a simple signal if speaking becomes difficult. Make any quieter space easy to find, voluntary to use and connected to a clear way of returning to the activity. For a child or someone needing support, arrange appropriate assistance or supervision without turning the space into a punishment.
- Information and transitions: Does the person know where to go, what will happen and approximately how long it will take? Explain likely noise, lighting or crowding before arrival where possible. Give notice of changes and a practical alternative if the arrangement becomes difficult to use.
The principle of adjusting environments to individual sensory needs also appears in NICE’s guidance for autistic adults and autistic children and young people. This checklist is a practical starting point for discussion and trials, rather than a certification of a room.
Choose changes that people can actually use
Begin with the problem causing the greatest difficulty and a change that is feasible. Expensive equipment may be unnecessary if the main problem is background music, an unsuitable seat or a television that is always on. Make it clear who can authorise changes and what resources are available.
Shared spaces can involve conflicting needs. One person may need brighter light to see, while another experiences glare. Adjustable lighting, different positions or access to another working area may help both. Discuss the actual requirements before deciding that somebody must simply tolerate the arrangement.
When Two Genuine Access Needs Collide works through what happens when the first adjustment does not help both people. A proposed solution should preserve meaningful participation, not merely move one person’s difficulty out of view.
For the Life After Death Autism Forum in 2019, the published arrangements included no background music, avoiding harsh lighting and excessive volume, and three quiet areas near the venue. The event also acknowledged limits in the organisers’ control over the space. That combination is useful: make concrete arrangements, explain the remaining constraints and invite people to identify needs that have been missed.
Keep exits, safety information, ventilation and required safety systems usable. Changes involving building services or specialist equipment should go through whoever is responsible for those systems.
Give each change an owner and a review date
Collecting feedback is only the beginning. Someone needs to act on it. Assign an agreed change to a named person who can implement it or obtain the necessary decision.
A short record is enough:
- Activity: What is the person trying to do?
- Barrier: What appears to make it difficult, and when?
- Agreed change: What will we try, and what choice will the person have?
- Responsibility: Who will arrange it, and by when?
- Review: When and how will we ask whether it helped?
- Result: Did it improve access, create another difficulty or need further adjustment?
For example, a person who cannot concentrate beside a noisy fan might try another desk. Check both concentration and temperature afterwards. Moving the noise out of earshot is of limited use if the new desk is uncomfortably hot.
Respond promptly to immediate safety or access problems. For other changes, agree a realistic date and tell the person what is happening. If a request cannot be met, explain the constraint and discuss alternatives instead of allowing it to disappear into a committee.
Ask about the experience afterwards
Allow feedback after the person has left or had time to recover. Ask whether they could do what they came to do, how much effort it took and what would make the next visit easier. Where useful, ask whether the activity left them unusually exhausted later.
A successful arrangement should make participation more manageable for the person using it. Their experience, including any cost that only becomes apparent afterwards, is more informative than how well the room matches somebody else’s idea of an autism-friendly design.
Also ask what the person enjoys and wants more access to. Sensory support need not stop at reducing aversion; a tolerable, rewarding experience can give participation a purpose. My sensory-development account illustrates that distinction without prescribing the same route for everyone.