Heritage and Neurodiverse Experience: Can Heritage Interaction Enable the Achievement of a More Meaningful Life?

The primary aim of the research is to question: can heritage interaction enrich neurodiverse individuals' experiences, enabling the achievement of a more meaningful life? Can heritage aid neurodiverse "flourishing" and allow possibilities to obtain meaning? Can explorations of identity within heritage sites contribute positively to the mental and physical wellbeing of neurodiverse individuals? The primary aim will be explored through two further complementary questions.

The first establishes: how can heritage sites and museums improve the experiences of neurodiverse visitors? This research aims to address whether increasing neurodiverse perspectives, participation and re-evaluation of regulated

behavioural patterns can improve the experience of neurodiverse visitors. The third research aim posits: are heritage sites and museums, through improvement of visitor experience, able to become safe places of exploration that meaningfully contribute to neurodiverse identity construction? Through further exploration of the conflation of disability, autism and neurodiversity within literature and physical sites, can heritage become a tool for identity exploration without becoming reductionist?

Can improvements to neurodiverse experience contribute to increasing societal cohesiveness by aiding the political expansion of identity to include the dissonances and variety of neurodiversity, increasing neurodiverse participation whilst advancing the improvement of museological practice?