Aversive visual experiences in the everyday lives of autistic people: Setting the scene for sensory accessibility in education and beyond

The proposed project will forge new ground in understanding lived experiences of sensory inaccessibility among autistic adults. It aims to (i) identify and quantify the low-level visual features associated with real-world aversive visual experiences, (ii) identify how aversive visual experiences vary between individuals in a neurodiverse population, (iii) develop a visual scale illustrating everyday aversive scenes which can be used to assess individual sensitivity, and (iii) develop a toolkit to assist educators and architects in assessing environments for visual accessibility.

Phase 1, Establishing participatory research (months 1-4)

This exploratory phase will harness experiential expertise within the autistic community (Fletcher-Watson et al., 2019) to inform the development of subsequent phases. Phase 2, Visually aversive environments and features (months 5-16)

I will use a mixture of methods to sample visual diet (e.g. Maule et al., 2021) and aversive visual experiences among autistic and neurotypical university students through digital photography. Participants will be recruited from a database held by the supervisory team and through established project-relevant partnerships.

Phase 3, Individual differences (months 17-22)

Phase 3 will take an individual differences approach. An online experiment will gather subjective individual responses to the images captured in Phase 2. This will confirm whether the visual aversion response is retained when contextual and multi-sensory aspects of locations are absent.

A large sample from the general student population (including all neurotypes) will rate the images for visual aversiveness, also completing questionnaires to characterise their autistic-like traits via the Autism Quotient (AQ - Baron-Cohen et al., 2001) and sensory profile via the Sensory Perception Quotient (SPQ - Tavassoli et al., 2014)

Phase 4, Scale and toolkit development (months 26-34, write-up months 35-42)

Data from Phase 3 will inform the development of an aversive visual experiences scale composed of exemplar images. The scale will provide a quick and easy way to assess individual vulnerability to aversive visual experiences in different environments, through the presentation and rating of a discrete set of visual stimuli. A separate sample will be used to validate the scale and participatory testing with the autistic community will ensure autism-friendly presentation (Stacey & Cage, 2022), both stages being informed by the psychometrics expertise of Jenny Terry (University of Sussex) and Dr Silia Vitoratou (e.g.

Vitoratou et al., 2021). In parallel, I will develop a toolkit for assessing visual accessibility barriers in educational settings, and potentially beyond, based on tools developed in Phase 3 and experiences from my placement.

The project will lead to advances in understanding aversive visual experiences in a neurodiverse population. These advances will contribute to improved societal understanding of the lived, sensory experience of different environments in autism, potentially reducing stigma (Charlton et al., 2021) and promoting a material shift towards inclusion-based models of disability (e.g.

Terroso, 2021). As well as working with the School of Psychology's Impact Team, I will harness Dr Sophie Anns' existing relationships with UK and US education establishments, including the Centre for Autism and Neurodiversity at Drexel University and St John's College in Brighton. This will allow trialling of new tools for identifying and rectifying visual issues in educational settings.

These case studies will feed into development of an educators/architects' toolkit for autism-inclusive design, supporting higher education ED&I goals by removing barriers to equitable participation. Development of a new visual scale will enable further research on aversive visual experiences and provide a tool for disability advisors and educators to characterise the everyday challenges.