To build a long and short term specialised disability accommodation community for NDIS and private access, including a respite and retreat centre with Autistic Inclusive Design from the ground up, and supports over all life domains.
Autistic Haus will not only create accommodation but also vital long term community assets and employment opportunities. Through working with local and national resources and initiatives, facilities will include farm fresh produce in a safe and supervised communal kitchen, as well as healthy and recreational opportunities, admin support and assistance with daily life.
Autistic neuro-biology is fundamentally different to the typically functioning population.
By building infrastructure and all of society without us in mind, we are harmed and excluded by the choices made by unaware populations. Many design principles founded in modern capitalism specifically exist to cause sensory overwhelm to induce more purchases (for example The Gruen Transfer in our essential infrastructure of grocery stores, city malls, and so on). This disproportionately impacts Autistic adults and children.
I myself will get debilitating migraines as a consequence of navigating these public spaces.
These environmental obstacles persist through spheres of accommodation and employment. White walls for example, can cause migraines for my lack of processing filters which for most people render that space neutral, and most rental accommodation features white walls heavily. Additionally hyperacuity (extreme sensitivity through senses that work very, very well) includes ear sensitivity (read pain), so tinted lenses can't be worn at length for some of us and especially to speak for myself.
Little if any consideration is given to the often preventable pain that Autistic people are enduring in order to participate in life, and the detrimental impact that has on all of our life outcomes.
Autistic inclusive design, conversely, allows for the pain free and functionally accessible existence of Autistic populations, with intersective foundations.
Unfortunately, while much work is being done to begin to understand the functional needs of Autistic processing in brains and bodies, the availability of environments which honour this are few and far between.
The leader in my opinion is G A Architects in the UK, I am a big fan of their initiatives and projects.
Aside from that, in the most part if you google "autistic inclusive design" you would find a majority of the narrative given over to accommodating perceived social deficits, which doesn't begin to account for our lived experiences from our perspective, let alone pervasive physical consequences of environments designed without us in mind.
It doesn't matter how much your hotel staff smile through their social discomfort around my atypical communication if all of the decor choices give me migraines or trigger my sensory aversions, or no thought is given to helpful details.
Likewise, all of the "Autism hours" in grocery stores won't help if the store layout is still intended for maximum confusion and exposure, building materials are chosen for their ability to bounce light and sound around, and it smells like roasted chicken and burnt chocolate (these are all examples of those deliberate choices that make people tend to spend more money!).
If we can't be allowed to thrive in public infrastructure, we need a place where it is possible to be a relaxed, healthy, and well regulated Autistic inclusive society.
Welcome to Autistic Haus.
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For Double Empathy, For The Paradigm Shift
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