“It Is a Big Spider Web of Things”: Sensory Experiences of Autistic Adults in Public Spaces

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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MacLennan, K., Woolley, C., andsensory, E., Heasman, B., Starns, J., George, B., & Manning, C. (2022). “It Is a Big Spider Web of Things”: Sensory Experiences of Autistic Adults in Public Spaces. Autism in Adulthood, 5(4), 411-422. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2022.0024

Publication date: 28 Sep 2022 Added to AutiHub: 30 Aug 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
7
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 7 (14.3%)
  1. K. MacLennan
  2. Catherine Woolley
  3. Emily andsensory
  4. Brett Heasman *
  1. Jess Starns
  2. Becky George
  3. Catherine Manning

Abstract

Background: Sensory processing differences are commonly experienced by autistic individuals, and some sensory experiences can greatly impact the mental health and quality of life of individuals. Previous research suggests that adapting the sensory nature of environments may improve individual experiences and engagement with these spaces. However, knowledge about which public places are particularly disabling is limited, especially from the perspective of autistic individuals. Little is also known about what in the sensory environment makes them particularly disabling. Methods: In this participatory research study, we investigated the sensory experiences of autistic adults in public spaces. We used an online focus group method, recruiting 24 autistic adults across 7 focus groups. We applied content analysis, reflexive thematic analysis, and case study analysis. Results: The results of the content analysis showed that supermarkets, eateries (i.e., restaurants, cafés, pubs), highstreets and city/town centers, public transport, health care settings (i.e., doctor's surgeries and hospitals), and retail shops and shopping centers are experienced to be commonly disabling sensory environments for autistic adults. However, outdoor spaces, retail shops, museums, concert venues/clubs, cinemas/theaters, and stadiums are identified to be commonly less disabling sensory environments. In addition, through reflexive thematic analysis we identified 6 key principles that underlie how disabling or enabling sensory environments are: Sensoryscape (sensory environment), Space, Predictability, Understanding, Adjustments, and Recovery. We represented these principles as a web to emphasize the interconnected, dimensional spectrum of the different themes. Lastly, we used case study analysis to evidence these principles in the commonly disabling sensory environments for richer detail and context and to provide credibility for the principles. Conclusions: Our findings have important implications for businesses, policy, and built environment designers to reduce the sensory impact of public places to make them more enabling for autistic people. By making public spaces more enabling, we may be able to improve quality of life for autistic individuals.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 13 Sep 2026 01:04.

Cited references
58
With a DOI
51
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
7
6 / 58 (10.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 58 (1.7%)
References with detected author names
57 / 58 (98.3%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
1
Without a stable identifier
6
References with raw author names still to review
1
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
184
From DOI or external metadata
184
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
1
76 / 184 (41.3%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 108 / 184 (58.7%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
8 / 184 (4.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 8 / 76 (10.5%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 7 / 169 (4.1%).
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