Designing Inclusive Educational Spaces with Reference to Autism

Abstract

Autism is a lifelong neurological disorder that affects communication, imagination and social abilities of an individual. There is no such highly prevalent condition that is so inadequately represented in the environmental research and design standards. This paper attempts to address and validate the environmental factors affecting the performance of children with autism in educational spaces. The paper is derived from a larger study that aims to assist in the development of design guidelines for educational facilities for children with autism, which are universal in nature and of benefit to all children. The study builds a framework that will work as a tool for architects, designers and facility managers to design high performance educational spaces for all. Although the overall study considers many design aspects such as observation, discussion and survey, the purpose of this paper is to identify the enabling aspects of educational environment for children with autism and measure their effects on educational performance.