Access is the specification.
Designing for accessibility and inclusivity means knowing what works and what actually gets in the way — the pace, the noise, the light, the language, the crowd size, the step at the door. The difference is we don't treat them as an adjustment made at the end; they're the specification we start from.
What we build and where we build it is decided by both established research on how sound, light and environment affect our nervous systems and by the decades of lived experience our team has in the settings and with the people this work is for:
Team Experience
- SEN music workshops across hundreds of schools and care units
- A music studio built inside a pupil referral unit for disengaged and autistic learners
- Dissertation-level study and creation of immersive, interactive sound and light installations
- Ten years of forest school work outside in woodlands with neurodivergent children
- Twelve years of art therapy practice
- The insight gained from years of documenting co-created community art and its impact
We plan to draw all the research and the combined weight of our direct experiences together under one name: Coherent Sensory Spaces. This is our working title under which we will publish the work as the company grows.
Positive Case-Studies
Here is a list of companies, events or installations that are already working in the ways that we are proposing. Each one is a case study for our research.
Vivid Sydney A very large outdoor light festival held across Sydney, Australia, each winter.
Eight things they do, most costing very little.
They publish a list of the fifteen quietest, least intense light works, by name — so a family can plan a route at home before they set off, avoiding the loud, bright parts.
They put warning signs on the intense works themselves, at the entrance, so the decision gets made at the moment it matters.
Three quiet spaces, each staffed — somewhere to sit when it becomes too much, without having to give up and go home.
A “visual story” — a picture-by-picture guide showing exactly what you will see, hear and walk through before you arrive, so nothing is a surprise. Made with Autism Spectrum Australia, an autism charity, and published as a document and as audio.
A communication board — a board of pictures and symbols, so someone who doesn't speak, or doesn't speak English, can point at what they need instead of having to find words.
A QR code at every work giving a spoken description of what's in front of you, for people who can't see it. And a named accessibility contact with a mobile number you can actually ring.
Why it matters to us: nearly every item does the same job — it removes a decision a visitor would otherwise have to make in the dark, in a crowd, with no information, while already overwhelmed. That is exactly the problem an outdoor light installation has to solve, and Vivid solved most of it with signs, lists and a phone number.
RHS Glow, Wisley A winter light trail through the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens at Wisley.
Two things: a published sensory guide, and a published capacity figure.
A seventeen-page guide to what the trail does to your senses — zone by zone. This bit is loud, this bit flashes, this bit is calm. It shows you routes around the parts you would rather avoid.
And a number nobody else publishes. On their quieter sessions they let 400 people an hour through. On a normal session, 1,600 an hour. A quiet session is a quarter as busy — and they have said so in writing.
Why it matters to us: that turns a vague promise into something a venue can plan. “It'll be quieter” is a hope. “A quarter of the usual number of people” is a decision someone made, costed, and can repeat. When we work out how many people can be in our own spaces at once, that is where we start.
The Enchanted Forest, Pitlochry A large light and sound show staged in woodland in Perthshire for several weeks each autumn.
They offer a calmer experience every single night, not on a handful of dates.
Most places that offer a quieter version run it on two or three set dates in a whole season. If you can't make those dates, you don't get it.
The Enchanted Forest keeps the first showing of every evening for autistic visitors, with fewer tickets sold. It isn't a separate event on a separate day — it's the first slot of the normal run, every night they're open. The change costs them almost nothing.
Their communication boards were made with NHS Tayside, the local health service — designed with people who work with autistic children.
In July 2026 they were shortlisted for the VisitScotland Inclusion Award.
Why it matters to us: it is proof that a real, ticket-selling attraction can offer a calmer experience every night rather than four times a season and stay in business. That is the model we are designing towards — not a special event you have to be free on a Tuesday for, but something built into how the place works.
Architects of Air Walk-in inflatable sculptures full of coloured light, touring worldwide since 1992.
The work is calm by default. There is no separate calm version.
Their own description: a space “somewhere between a womb and a cathedral”, which is “simultaneously providing a stimulating and calming environment, compelling many to rest, meander, or meditate.” They say they are “passionate and skilled in creating a safe and nurturing environment for whoever enters”.
More than three million visitors in over forty countries since 1992.
Why it matters to us: the calm is a property of the work itself, not a session in the timetable. Thirty-four years and forty countries with the same structure.
Titanic Belfast & Dublin Zoo's Wild Lights A museum and a winter light trail, both of which prepare you before you arrive.
Both publish a “social story” — the same idea as Vivid's visual story. A picture guide showing what will happen, in order, before you go.
Why it matters to us: these are cheap to make and they remove most of the fear of a first visit. There are almost none of them in the UK.
Published Guidance
The ASPECTSS Design Index, by Professor Magda Mostafa, sets out seven things to get right when designing a space for autistic people. Three apply directly to an outdoor trail: group the space into calmer and busier zones; make the change from one zone to the next gradual rather than sudden; and always provide somewhere to escape to.
The Sensory Trust publishes a free library on designing gardens and trails for people with different sensory needs — how to survey a site, how to write an honest description of what a visitor will meet, and how to use picture-and-symbol systems for people who don't read text.
The Outdoor Accessibility Guidance, from the Sensory Trust with Paths for All, gives measurements you can build to: paths at least 1.2 metres wide, slopes no steeper than one metre of rise over twenty metres of length, and a bench every 100 metres on the most accessible routes.
Why it matters to us: these turn “accessible” from a good intention into numbers a contractor can work from.