Dublin City University is to pilot an indoor navigation app to alert students with autism to noisy hotspots or quiet zones on campus.
It is the latest phase of the university’s work to make the campus more friendly to students who are neurodivergent.
Research carried out by DCU found that people with autism require additional support in areas such as communication, socialisation, information processing, life skills and navigation, as well as accessing quiet spaces and quiet times on campus.
The college, which says it is the world’s first autism-friendly university, first began implementing a series of initiatives to meet the needs of staff and students with autism in 2016.
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This included the installation of sensory pods on campus, autism-friendly open days and the development of an autism toolkit for students.
At an event on Thursday, DCU president Dáire Keogh said the second phase of the initiative will focus on building capacity to support employees with autism and piloting the indoor navigation app on noise levels.
Sound sensors have been placed at key locations on campus and data will feed into a heat map which will show noise volumes.
“The autism-friendly university initiative has been transformative,” said Mr Keogh. “Not just for our neurodiverse students, but also for the entire DCU community’s understanding and appreciation of issues around difference and inclusion.”
Matthew Smith, a final year early childhood education student at DCU’s St Patrick’s Campus, who has autism, said the changes have had a real impact.
“I think it is testament to the autism-friendly initiative that I rarely have to think about my autism in terms of my studies because I am rarely faced with any difficulty because of it,” said Smith.
“I know that DCU understands that, in a world that can sometimes be hostile towards the autistic way of being, the work is never simply over.”
Autism researcher Dr Mary Rose Sweeney, who investigated the impact of phase one of the project at DCU, said that while some students with autism are happy and thriving with the learning environment and the autism-specific supports on offer, many are not.
“Many report feeling overwhelmed, lonely, isolated, depressed and challenged with the pace of academic life and the volume of work,” said Dr Sweeney, who is based at the DCU’s school of nursing, psychotherapy and community health.
“Research points to the need for more support and services, particularly quiet spaces to de-stress and stress management strategies, as well as academic supports such as planning, time management and organisation around study, lectures and assignments.”
She said the findings suggest that students with autism who are aware of the project feel that it has positively impacted on their lives.
“The uptake of the autism-specific services and support on offer could be higher, but it is likely that Covid-19 was a big limiting factor during the period under evaluation, and a new principle has been added in this second phase of the project to support members of staff with autism.”
There are currently 92 students registered with autism at DCU out of about 20,000. Researchers believe this is a significant underestimate.
Adam Harris, chief executive of autism charity AsIAm, said at the launch that the achievements by DCU have been enormous in terms of the impact for students and other institutions across Ireland.
“It’s a very simple concept that autistic people just want the same chance as other people,” he said.
