Making businesses Autism friendly

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Making businesses Autism friendly

Crowded and noisy areas can be difficult for those with autism

What space would help you the most if it became more autism-friendly? ...shops, restaurants and supermarkets need to be made more accessible for those with autism.

... many people with autism find public spaces challenging because they are not designed with their needs in mind and because staff do not understand their needs.
“Accessibility is not just about wheelchairs and ramps”, says Lisa Hopkins of Dimensions, “...businesses and services can become more accessible by listening to the experiences of the autism community.”

SEN Magazine

This is a photograph of two people looking happy with their thumbs up.

Here are some of the ways that businesses can become more autism friendly:

Autism awareness training for staff
Improved sign-posting of seating areas, payment desks and toilets
Flexibility to alter the lighting or music volume upon request
Accurate waiting times given to customers
Wider varieties of gluten and casein free food for people on specific diets
Ability to 'queue jump' if needed to minimise difficulties in waiting for long periods of time
Autism friendly times/days where alterations are made to suit the needs of someone that experiences autism – such as Autism Friendly Film screenings

Dimensions - there for the people we support

For more information on the Dimensions survey, to see how the 250 Respondents voted, as well as, to view nearly 100 comments, visit: www.dimensions-uk.org/yourautismfriendly

A few Comments:

Autism friendly fireworks seem to be going well in America and really enabling people with autism to enjoy the lights, without the loud noise. I'd love to see it spread more widely here for Guy Fawkes.

Lisa Hopkins (04/04/2012 14:15:26)

Hospitals and barber shops!!

This is where it's really a nightmare for my 4 yr old nonverbal autistic son.

Ruby Ali (04/04/2012 22:20:02)

Nicola Ginat (05/04/2012 14:22:14)I really worry that should my low-functioning 13 year old autistic son, ever become really ill and need hospitalisation how the staff would deal with him. It would be great if at least some members of staff in hospitals had some kind of training/awareness of treating profoundly autistic people.

YVONNE BOND (05/04/2012 15:46:25)All areas of what community offers is a problem because there are often too many people. My son and I often live in 'a bubble' except when there is an autistic friendly event that suits. Of which there are not many.

Holly Evans (08/04/2012 23:04:01)Some shops have a disability sign above the tills which means they offer assistance to those with a disability. A lot of people thinks this only applies to people in wheelchairs but I have used this when shopping with my son and the queues have been lengthy. I have explained my son has a neurological disability called autism which means he cannot queue for long periods of times and other shops with the sign have let us go straight to the till or opened another till up for us to avoid him having to queue and then asked if it would be possible in their shop - I've never been refused so far. I wish all shops had this sign.

Libraries and leisure centres by us do holiday arts and crafts, gymnastics and trampolining sessions. I wish they could do a special needs session for these. We tried out the gymnastics one but the coach got very frustrated with DS not being able to follow the instructions or do the movements cos his coordination and balance is poor. It was just a holiday fun club, not proper lessons where they might be working towards competitions or anything. The arts and crafts one was quite complicated - they had to make a treasure chest and do a quiz. DS found the quiz questions too hard and I had to basically do all the treasure chest for him cos it was really fiddly so then he lost interest and wanted to run around which of course he couldn't do in a library.

I have heard of a few places doing autism friendly fireworks but I wish it was more common place. The nearest one last year was nearly 30 miles away so we didn't go.