The well-being of the sensitive: indoor environment and well-being of people with autism

Project Information

SENSEwellbeing

Grant agreement ID: 101064284

DOI

10.3030/101064284

Project closed

EC signature date 23 June 2022

Start date 8 August 2022

End date 7 August 2024

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 230 774,40

Coordinated by

DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SENSEwellbeing (The well-being of the sensitive: indoor environment and well-being of people with autism)

Reporting period: 2022-08-08 to 2024-08-07

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC)* needs to be considered in building design. First and foremost, this is due to the fact that the number of ASC diagnoses has been rising in recent years, with WHO estimating that about 1 % of children is autistic worldwide. Due to their sensitivity to sensorial stimuli (e.g. hyper- or hypo-sensitivity), autistic people might perceive the environment differently, leading to different requirements in terms of indoor conditions (thermal, visual, acoustic and Indoor Air Quality – IAQ). Nevertheless, standards and guidelines for indoor design typically address average populations, and there is little knowledge in the literature about how the indoor environment affects autistic people. SENSEwellbeing addresses exactly this. In living labs and field studies, measurements of environmental parameters (thermo-hygrometric, visual, acoustic, IAQ), subjective questionnaire surveys and tests of performance have been conducted. It was found that autistic people are more affected by discomfort conditions and crossover of senses if compared with non-autistic participants. SENSEwellbeing is significant for the scientific community, designers and industry: it offers inputs to develop standards and guidelines to be used for the future design of inclusive indoor environments for autistic and sensitive occupants.


* The report was written following the language acceptability recommendations of Autism-Europe (https://www.autismeurope.org/aboutautism/acceptable-language/). In compliance with that, the term “condition” was preferred to “disorder”. Additionally, the identity-first language was promoted, as frequently preferred by the autistic community, as autism is considered by many autistic individuals as an important and inherent identity part (https://search3.openobjects.com/mediamanager/cumbria/fsd/files/consultation_report_-_how_we_speak_about_autism_across_county_council_and_nhs_services_in_cumbria_-_identity_first_language_.pdf).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

After obtaining ethical approval from the Committee on Health Research Ethics for the Capital Region of Denmark (H-22068454), two parallel experimental campaigns were conducted with autonomous (level A according to DSM-5-TR) autistic participants:
1. Living Lab Campaign (LLC). In office-like environments, a group of autistic people and a group of non-autistic controls were exposed to different environmental conditions. The thermal, visual, acoustic, and IAQ conditions were controlled, while participants answered comfort questionnaires and carried out performance tests. Environmental and physiological (heartbeat and skin temperature) parameters were measured.
2. Field Study Campaign (FSC). Environmental monitoring was carried out in dwellings of autistic participants all over Denmark, who were periodically asked to answer comfort questionnaires (all four comfort domains).

Descriptive statistics and state-of-the art statistical methods were performed with the following objectives: 1. To compare the environmental perception of autistic people with a control group, quantifying the differences in terms of indoor requirements; 2. To verify the applicability of current comfort models (e.g. PMV-PPD and adaptive for thermal comfort) with autistic people and to evaluate their preferred environmental conditions; 3. To evaluate the effect of different combination of thermal conditions, view-out availability (view out / no view out) and light spectrum of artificial light on indoor well-being and performance of a group of autistic people compared with a control group; 4. To highlight the limits of current adaptation understandings when associated with the categories here considered; 5. To associate the different responses to subjective human characteristics (gender, age, co-occurring conditions, number of autistic traits); 6. To explore the combined effects of the four comfort domains on the environmental well-being of autistic people; 7. To validate the results obtained in a living lab under “real life” conditions.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Due to the considerable amount of data collected, the analysis of experimental data of SENSEwellbeing is still ongoing. The following first results were found so far:
1. Discomfort conditions are perceived as more extreme by autistic people.
2. Multi-domain aspects influence autistic people more than people without the diagnosis. In particular, the access to a natural view seem to mitigate the feeling of thermal discomfort of autistic occupants.
3. Individual differences and faceting intrinsic into ASC, cause perception of autistic individuals to be more subjective.
4. The two groups have differences in their perception (e.g. local discomfort), with the autistic occupants being more bothered by cold and warm feelings at the extremities (legs/feet, arm/hands, head), while a higher number of people without the diagnosis indicated the chest as the critical point.
5. The importance of having control of environmental conditions for autistic people, who indicate to be fundamental having the possibility to adjust the environmental conditions as they prefer.

The results need to be integrated with other findings from similar research, in order to be used to define guidelines on the design of spaces to be occupied by autistic or sensitive people.