Autism and sensoriality in the city – AutiSenCité

When moving around the city, sensory awareness plays a major role, as there is so much sensory information to process simultaneously to move around efficiently and calmly. But people with autism have sensory characteristics that can limit their independence and quality of life in urban environments. While these particularities have been the subject of numerous laboratory and clinical studies, there is little data available in an ecological environment, gathering, moreover, the views of people with autism. This interdisciplinary and participatory project involves developing a methodology for the sensory evaluation of the environment when walking in the city, adapted to the sensory and cognitive characteristics of people with autism. To achieve this objective, the protocol for sensory walks (sensory evaluation scale, sensitive map), used by town planners and geographers, will be adapted by psychologists and clinicians to the specific needs of people with autism. During the walks, a behavioural analysis of their reactions to the environment and physical measurements (sound and light) will be carried out to objectivise the effect of sensory stimulation on autistic people. All this data, together with the expertise of autistic people, will then be used to establish an index of adaptation of the environment to their sensory needs, a key element in encouraging the local authorities in which the experiment will take place to take these elements into account when micro-adapting urban space. At the end of the project, a complete kit for preparing, carrying out and analysing a simplified version of the sensory walk will be made available free of charge.