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The objective of this paper is to study the efficacy of the ASPECTSS Design Index's concepts as drivers of design intervention for educational environments for students on the autism spectrum. Based on the seven principles of acoustics, spatial sequencing, escape spaces, compartmentalization, transitions, sensory zoning and safety, ASPECTSS formed the basis for a preliminary post-occupancy evaluation (POE) and survey of an existing school environment.

Concepts drawn from the review of other strategies for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) friendly design were integrated with the seven ASPECTSS principles to create a design framework and consequent design retro-fit for a Pre-K-12th grade public school for students on the autism spectrum. The following design interventions were proposed: colour-coding based navigation; acoustical treatments in key circulation spaces; introduction of transition alcoves; classroom reorganisation using compartmentalization principles and the introduction of escape spaces for de-escalation. Specifically, a classroom template of modules of ASPECTSS-compliant layouts was provided to all staff. The efficacy and impact of these interventions were assessed using a whole campus online staff survey with further probing using classroom observations and subsequent interviews.

The results show alignment between the implementation of the ASPECTSS informed design interventions and responses to nine of the Likert scale items were all significantly lower than the middle response, indicating a high degree of satisfaction from survey respondents. These questions and responses related to the colour scheme facilitating ease of navigation for visitors of the school, the acoustics of the building successfully mitigating sound magnification and subsequently student distractibility, the organisation of the classrooms enhancing learning and the de-escalation zones allowing improved management of disruptive behaviours in the classroom.

This study focuses primarily on the Autism ASPECTSS Design Index as a framework for assessing classroom efficacy. Other tools and frameworks may produce different insights. A single school site was studied. Validation of these findings in other school environments is necessary before generalising these strategies at scale. The use of qualitative tools, primarily teacher and staff surveys, provides one lens into the efficacy of these design strategies. Further research using measurable biometric indicators such as heart-rate and stress levels measured through wearable technology could provide a first step towards the triangulation of these findings.

These findings could help provide more standardised best practices for designing learning environments for autism, potentially providing supportive strategies with real impact on learning quality, skill development and knowledge acquisition in school environments. This could potentially have economic implications by supporting more efficient progress for autistic students through their school curriculum.

Similar to economic impact, if validated and generalised, these findings could help with sense of accomplishment, general mental health improvement, alleviation of family stress and potential reduction of stigma in the autism community.

There is a slowly emerging field of design guidance for autism schools, but very little empirical evidence on the measurable efficacy of these strategies. This research provides one type of such evidence, as measured by the perceived impact from the point of view of staff and teachers at the school.

A key development in early adolescence is the active construction of individual identity; for autistic young people, integrating the idea of “being autistic” forms part of this process. The purpose of this paper is to explore identity development from a contextualist perspective, foregrounding young people’s experiences within mainstream educational settings.

A longitudinal, qualitative methodology was used: semi-structured interviews were conducted annually with 14 autistic young people, their parents and teachers between school years 6 and 9.

Young people felt different from their neurotypical peers and their acceptance of their diagnosis changed over time as they managed their developing personal and public identities. In pursuit of being treated “normally,” many camouflaged their differences at school, which sometimes involved opting out of school-based support. Adults described their own understandings of autism and discussed the responses of others in the school environment to autistic differences.

The influence of sociocultural discourses of autism on young people’s identity development is discussed and implications for both school based and post-diagnostic support for young people and their families explored.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the transition to and early experience of secondary school for students with autism from the perspective of their parents. It aimed to gather the parents’ personal accounts of their views of the transition experience for their child and of their perceptions of both the positive and the negative factors inherent in the process of transition. There was an emphasis on seeking useful information for others from the parent’s perception, views and choices.

As parents were reporting on their own perceptions and also their child’s experiences, a qualitative exploratory descriptive method was required. Thematic analysis was used as a pragmatic method to report on the experiences, meanings and the reality of the transition to secondary school from a parent’s perspective (Braun and Clarke, 2012).

A variety of supports and strategies were described, parents were unanimous in their emphasis of the importance of communication to them. Parents were concerned about secondary schools not fully understanding the nature of autism, and the impact this can have on their child as an individual. Despite differing perceptions and views on the purpose or end product of secondary educations for their child, all the parents communicated a desire for their child to reach their potential and make progress within the secondary school system.

This was a small qualitative study with a self-selected group of parents in the Republic of Ireland, with fathers underrepresented. It did not take any account from any other stakeholders or the students themselves.

Parents would benefit from more practical support and communication during this time in the child’s education. Their recommendations and personal experiences may serve as a useful reference point for parents preparing for this time in their child’s school life.

The study highlights the need to better understand how children with autism can be supported in making social attainments and connections within mainstream secondary schools in Ireland.

There is a small body of knowledge related to the secondary school experience for students with autism. It contributes the parental perspective and highlights areas for further research and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a teaching model involving an experimental studio project for first-year interior architecture university students.

Content, process, teaching style and feedback are examined in a project, run over five years, concerning transitioning between environments for people with autism in an attempt to advance design of autism schools. Research methodology, teaching model, outcomes and group dynamics are critiqued.

Feedback from experienced autism-specific teachers across eight case study schools raise recurring issues framing a series of design problems navigated by students. The teaching model enhances student exploration of how sensory processing difficulties, through spatial transitioning strategies, might be approached, whilst furthering their specialist knowledge as future designers of inclusive spaces.

Each transitioning platform requires deeper research to form a realistic interior typology. A further project to install and evaluate specific “transitioning insertions” into circulation spaces of an autism school is proposed for future research.

The identification of this teaching model illustrates how to embed design for autism in the university curriculum.

The project brief helps address the National Autistic Society’s public autism awareness campaign “Too Much Information” highlighting anxieties that “unexpected change” causes. Effective design of transitioning spaces can help people with autism to cope with their environment, reducing behaviours and improving learning.

The creation of the “Co-specialist ASD-educator model” will be of value to universities. “Ten Spatial Transitioning Platforms” were uncovered relating to Transitions. This will be of importance to autism researchers and eventually design practitioners.

Over one million individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will be entering adulthood and attempting to cultivate fulfilling, meaningful life experiences. These young adults with ASD represent Generation A. The workplace will be a major element in cultivating fulfilling lives for Generation A. Social interaction is an integral component for functioning within most postsecondary and occupational settings. It is necessary to understand the interaction between autistic adults and organizations to understand potential social and behavioral deficits. The workplace is inherently a social place. Understanding both formal and informal social information in the workplace may be critical to successful job performance. Fit, particularly person–organization fit, is used to address this social nature of the workplace. Understanding this interaction helps provide a means for crafting both individual and organizational interventions which support autistic adults in the workplace. This chapter provides an analysis of interventions that support those with ASD in the workplace. It is proposed that these interventions will help create a more supportive work environment for those with ASD. As important, it is proposed that the accommodations for those with ASD are reasonable for any organization seeking to improve both satisfaction and performance for all its employees. By addressing these issues, organizations have the potential to create a more satisfying workplace for all workers, not just those in Generation A.

There is currently a lack of research describing the best way to design learning environments for increasing numbers of children with autism. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of classroom design on the learning and behaviour of pupils with severe autism. The research variables of interest were classroom layout; furniture, fittings and equipment (FFE); materials; colour scheme; wayfinding; lighting; acoustics; and security.

This study conducted a post-occupancy evaluation of classrooms for pupils with severe autism aged 3–19 in a school ten years after its completion. Data collection included a visual assessment of the building and an online survey to educators and administrators asking how satisfied they were that the research variables benefited pupils with severe autism.

Key findings were that zoned areas for different activities met students’ needs. Withdrawal rooms off the classroom, access to shared hygiene facilities and a secure outdoor area received high ratings. The main criticisms were the lack of robustness of FFE and the inability to control temperature. Results were collated into a table of recommendations for classroom design for severely autistic pupils.

The findings demonstrate classroom features that support the needs of pupils with severe autism, an area with limited prior research. Some findings support previous research and some adds new knowledge to our understanding of design for this population. The results provide empirical evidence for professionals involved in designing classrooms for pupils with severe autism.

This paper assesses the ability of the minimally verbal child with autism to recognise their own voice. The rationale for this study rests in recent advances in technology aimed at making the voice of speech generating devices (SGDs) sound more like the child using them (van Santen and Black, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the child’s ability to actually recognise the sound of their own voice in a series of short experiments using computer-based methodology.

Using a voice-face matching computerised paradigm, the performance of 33 children with autism was compared to that of 27 children with developmental delay (DD), and 33 typically developing (TD) children. The children were matched for verbal and non-verbal ability and a training period was conducted prior to the main test to ensure children’s understanding of what was expected of them.

The findings of this study suggest that the child with autism recognise the sound of their own voice at test, but with much greater difficulty than age-and-ability matched comparison groups. The implications of this finding are useful for researchers in the field of speech mimicry technology and manufacturers of SGD software packages. The paper also provides empirical insights about how the child with autism may process voice in their everyday social interactions.

Some limitations to this study exist, for instance, there were only a small number of presentations involving self-voice in this task. This may have over simplified the process for the young TD children and the children with DD. Nevertheless, it is striking that despite being matched for non-verbal mental age, the children with autism performed significantly less well than either of the other two groups of children. However, future studies would benefit from adjusting the number of presentations of voice and face accordingly. It is also important to note that for some children with autism the simultaneous presentation of faces and voices may act more as an interference effect (Cook and Wilding, 1997; Joassin et al., 2004) than a facilitation effect (Molholm et al., 2002). Future studies may wish to test a subgroup on voice recognition without the aid of visual prompts.

The paper includes implications for the type of voice children with autism may prefer to use when communicating via a SGD. The authors suggest that if the child does not recognise or prefer the sound of their own natural voice on such devices, partial or complete abandonment of the SGD may occur.

This paper fulfils an identified need to research how children’s abilities and preferences can be taken into account at the point of decision making for particular communication tools.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of training on educational staff attitudes, sentiments, concerns and efficacy in providing support for children with Autism in mainstream settings.

The investigation adopted a pre-test/post-test, quasi-experimental, within-subject research design. In total, 35 early years educators, teachers and pupil support assistants from one Scottish Local Authority (LA) undertook training delivered by the LA’s Communication and Language Outreach Service. Measures included the Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education Revised (SACIE-R) scale and the teacher efficacy for inclusive practices (TEIP) scale pre and post-training. Post-training participants completed a questionnaire employing open and closed questions to assess perceived usefulness of training, application of knowledge and effectiveness of the teaching strategies.

Combining data from the three sectors there was a significant change in staff efficacy for inclusive practices (z=−3.406, p=0.001, p<0.05, with a medium effect size r=0.41) although there were differences between the sectors. There was a significant change in SACIE-R total scores (z=−3.945, p=0.000, p<0.05; with a medium effect size r=0.47), sentiments (z=−2.763, p=0.006, p<0.05; with a medium effect size r=0.33) and concerns (z=−3.685, p=0.000, p<0.05; with a medium effect size of r=0.44) subscale scores for the combined sector data. There was no significant change in the attitudes subscale scores for the combined sector data (z=−1.106, p=2.69, p>0.05; with a small effect size r=0.13) although there were differences between the sectors.

Limitations include: small sample size, minor differences in the training in different sectors, purposeful sampling, use of questionnaire post-training, variability of completion of SCAIE-R and TEIP post-training.

There appears to be limited research into inclusive practices for children with Autism in the UK context, which this study aims to address.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue of social inclusion for people with autism spectrum conditions.

Drawing on current policy and good practice guidelines as well as the experience of people with autism and those who support them, this paper considers how well legislation, policy, and good practice are currently implemented with regard to improving the social inclusion of children and adults with autism spectrum conditions.

International and UK policy sets out the rights of children and adults with disabilities to live a good life in the community, with reasonable adjustment to be made by society to ensure this is possible. However, the practical and strategic implementations of policies to ensure these rights for people with autism are still not fully in place.

This discussion takes into consideration the views of carers and support professionals and the direct experiences of those with autism as well as policy and published guidance.

Autistic Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disorder estimated to inflict 1 in every 150 children, regardless of socio-cultural aspects, with a four to one prevalence in males over females, (ADDM, 2007). It involves a complex sensory perceptual model, variant from that of the typical individual. It manifests itself in the form of repetitive behaviour, lack of social skills and communication delays and challenges. Being a life-long infliction, individuals with autism require a comprehensive range of specialized support services, including residential, from childhood to adulthood.

Housing services for special needs, in general, conventionally deal with issues of physical access. The provisions required for developmentally challenged individuals, such as those with autism are rarely considered.

This paper aims to provide a precedent to help guide the adaptation process in the case of group residential accommodation for autistic adults in mass housing projects. After a brief examination of the available literature in the field, a case study will be presented, illustrating design criteria developed for adapting housing for autistic use.