The National Autistic Society was funded by The Motability Foundation to address the gap in research on autistic people and travel. Our year-long project produced eye-opening findings, and clear recommendations.
Our ambitious project involved autistic people, families, and supporting professionals in a high-quality piece of user research to:
- Understand the greatest barriers and challenges autistic people experience when using transport, particularly buses and trains.
- Identify evidence-based and feasible solutions to make transport more accessible to autistic people.
- Establish which changes and interventions autistic people would most like to see, and how these fit in with industry capabilities.
We captured the views and experiences of thousands of people through surveys, interviews, and workshops. Using this data, we worked with transport and accessibility experts to understand what improvements are possible, considering their industry and resource limitations.
“From a sensory point of view, there are so many sounds, the smells, the proximity of people. People aren’t following rules, they’re vaping on buses. Others have got their music on and they’re being so loud and inconsiderate.”
Autistic woman
Why is it important?
More than one in 100 people are autistic and there are at least 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK. Autistic people face many barriers and inequalities in accessing school, work, healthcare and leisure which can be made worse by difficulties using transport and making journeys.
“I’ve arrived at train stations to find that my train has been delayed or cancelled and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do then. I’ve felt very lost and frightened.”
Autistic woman
In a neurotypical world of overwhelming sensory environments and confusing social rules, travel can be exhausting or impossible for autistic people. We found a distinct lack of quality, UK-based research on this topic, and set out to address the evidence gap. We produced a thorough and robust piece of participatory research which was autistic-led.
Overall, we found a need for:
- Support for autistic passengers.
- Accessible information.
- Sensory adaptations.
- Autism understanding.
- Reducing uncertainty.
“It’s like a world of things out there which could really change someone’s life, but transport could be a barrier stopping you from being able to have all this potential. It’s life changing really, having access to good, safe transport and feeling confident enough to travel on your own.”
Parent of an autistic man
These evidence-based recommendations from our project report must be actioned by transport professionals and industry leads, across the short and long term. You play a crucial role in helping to make transport accessible for autistic people. Whatever stage you’re at in developing systems to support this, please consider how to incorporate these recommendations which are the result of thorough user-led research.
Visit our website where you can find further resources including a full project report, a short video, extended case studies and articles: http://autism.org.uk/what-we-do/who-we-are/research/empowering-autistic-travel
Improve your autism and neurodiversity knowledge at: https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/autism-know-how
Take a look through our short guide which summarises key findings, spotlights some autistic passengers’ travel stories and outlines project recommendations for the transport industry.
Image credit: National Autistic Society