Grounded in universal design, human-centred usability, and biophilic design, Wunya Path is an inclusive, accessible and culturally respectful student housing project developed by Master of Architecture student and co.lab member Paula Calixto Egues. Proposed for Griffith University’s Nathan Campus, Wunya Path reimagines student housing into a welcoming and nature-integrated environment for all. Its sweeping ramp network incorporates multisensorial approaches that celebrate art, materials and storytelling. 

With accessibility at the forefront of the design, multiple accessible units, communal area accessible bathrooms, adjustable furniture, wide corridors and varied light level gathering spaces and just some of the features of this project. Nearby Toohey Forest is the inspiration for the biophilic façade, allowing filtered light to cascade throughout the open-air gathering and play spaces. 

Existing student housing, built in the 1980s, has only one accessible room and does not reflect the accessibility standards of today. With over 10% of students identifying as having a disability and the diverse university community, Wunya Path addresses the community needs through its responsive and sustainable design that focuses on village life and wellbeing for students, academics, and families. 

At the centre of Wunya Path lies the Heart, a five-level vertical experience where residents journey through the five senses. A café activates community connections through tasty food, charred textured timber encourages tactile engagement, native flowering plants provide scents to boost wellbeing, a gallery space of student artworks celebrates creativity and visual identity, and a rooftop yarning circle provides a safe space for listening and storytelling. 

Wunya Path challenges conventional notions of student housing by placing empathy, dignity, and ecological sensitivity at the centre of design. It stands as a replicable model for equitable campus living in Australia and beyond. By linking spatial design with human experience, it offers a new way of thinking about student life; not just as housing, but as a place of belonging, growth, and connection. 

By Samantha Rowe - 2 December, 2024

Sensory inclusion is a passion of mine. I have lived experience of sensory sensitivity and sensory overload. So I know just how hard it is to try to fit into the vibrant spaces and environments that are hubs for community spirit, but can also be overwhelming sensory barriers for others. Like many non-apparent disabilities, sensory sensitivity inclusion - though increasing - is still underrepresented within the cultural sectors.

What is sensory inclusion?

Sensory inclusion is a holistic initiative that integrates resources, knowledge, and awareness training into the heart of an organisation to reduce barriers and create an attitudinal culture shift. The resources are the supports of the foundational knowledge and societal attitude structure. Being sensory inclusive means integrating sensory inclusion into all aspects of your organisation, including both staff and visitor spaces and processes. Sensory inclusion is within everyday practices and not limited to certain times or locations.

What is sensory sensitivity?

Our sensory systems tell our brain about the environment around us and what our bodies are experiencing. Sensory processing is how our brain organises this information. When our brains are operating and processing this information effectively, we are able to control the degree to which we are affected by the sensory information. But when our brains are struggling to process the incoming sensory inputs, we can experience sensory sensitivity and sensory overload.

The human body has eight sensory systems that process incoming information and send that information to our brain. Sensory inputs are cumulative and build upon each other which can make it more difficult for the brain to process. People who have sensory sensitivity typically notice more information than others, with their brains not filtering out or suppressing the irrelevant background sensory information or competing stimuli as easily as other people. Therefore, they are processing more information about their external and internal environment than others. People of any age can experience sensory overload, and all people experience it in different ways. It may be more noticeable in children as they are still learning coping mechanisms and how to reduce triggers and symptoms. 

What is sensory overload?

Sensory overload occurs when one or more of the senses is overstimulated or overwhelmed, making the brain unable to interpret, prioritise, and process all the information that it is receiving. It usually occurs in environments that are loud, crowded, are hot or cold, have strong smells, have flashing lights or fast movement, or have lots of different conversations occurring. And it’s not just loud concerts, it can be waiting in a long queue, airports, or grocery shopping, anywhere that there are a variety of sensory stimuli in the same space.

Sensory overload is an experience a person may have when their brains receive too much sensory information than it is able to process effectively, and becomes overloaded. The brain can then send a message to the body that it needs to get away from the sensory input and the body starts to panic. The behaviour response may vary but it usually triggers a fight, flight or freeze/shutdown response.

Sensory overload varies for each person, including the triggers, symptoms, and people can experience sensory overload for different reasons. It is associated with several health conditions such as:

Neurodivergent conditions: 

• ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder)
• ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) 
• Tourette’s
• SPD (sensory processing disorder) 
• Dyspraxia

Mental health conditions: 

• Anxiety 
• PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) 
• OCD
• Panic attacks

Neurological conditions:

• MS (multiple sclerosis) 
• Dementia
• Parkinson’s
• Epilepsy
• Functional Neurological Disorder
• Brain injuries – Traumatic Brain Injuries & concussions

Other conditions:
 

• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic fatigue syndrome 
• Downs Syndrome
• Cerebral palsy (CP)
• Eye conditions - such as binocular vision dysfunction
• Albinism
• Migraines

The fight, flight or freeze response, or stress response, is our body’s natural reaction to a perceived threat. These responses are automatic, involuntary and unconscious decisions that the brain makes almost immediately and prepares us for action, whether it’s fight for your life, run away or freeze in the hope that you are not seen.

The sympathetic nervous system activates automatic and involuntary responses, such as increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing, delivering more oxygen to the large muscle groups we need to fight or run. 

Sensory overload and the stress response can make people feel as if they were being attacked by a predator, so they won’t be feeling good — they could feel unsafe, fearful, panicky, sweaty, pale, and shaky. And these feelings and symptoms can take a while to subside. Any of these responses need time to run their course and discharge. If they don’t run their course then the body still thinks it's under threat. The nervous system needs to be regulated to be able to calm the brain and body down.

Stigma and tokenism with sensory sensitivity

People who are Autistic or have PTSD can display behaviours that others think are aggressive, disruptive or look like self-harm. However, these behaviours are a triggered reaction to their brain experiencing heightened sensory inputs or overload. People who self-advocate and ask organisations to turn down music, turn off flashing lights, remove smelly items, or ask for a dark space can be treated as though they are narcissistic, when they are simply trying to participate at an equitable level to everyone else.

The lack of understanding of sensory sensitivity and sensory overload is just as much a challenge and a barrier as the sensory overwhelming environments themselves. Having sensory kits, or having sensory friendly hours by themselves without having staff training in understanding the lived experience of sensory overload and how to identify and assist a person experiencing sensory overwhelm is not genuine sensory inclusion. 

What is a Sensory Kit?

A sensory kit is a toolkit of items that provide support to people who experience sensory sensitivity and sensory overload. A sensory kit is important because it promotes relaxation and decompression for people when sensory inputs interfere with attention or cause them to become anxious, overwhelmed, or overloaded. The items in the kit are to help reduce overstimulation of the senses, as well as provide brain distraction items to assist concentration.

Included in sensory kit are usually:

• Sunglasses: to help with photosensitivity.
• Ear muffs or noise cancelling headphones: to help with phonosensitivity.
• Fidget toys:  to help with concentration, fidgeting, stimming & brain diversion.
• Notepad and pencil: for writing down or drawing needs, experiences, feelings, emotions, questions etc…
• Weighted bag: can help relieve stress by increasing the release of serotonin.
• Communication cards: a communication tool with clear pictures and important information that helps communicate a person’s needs, experiences, and emotions. This is especially helpful for people who are non-speaking. 
• Sensory Map: a floor map that shows high and low sensory areas.
• Visiting Stories* (also called social stories/narratives and visual stories): a photo and text based resource that helps visitors prepare for their visit, know what to expect, understand visitor expectations, know what wayfinding challenges there may be, and know what areas may cause sensory challenges.  [* we prefer the term "visiting stories" so that people with autism and low vision don't feel excluded by language or negative historical associations].

Sensory kits were first created for the neurodivergent community, but are also beneficial for anyone who may experience sensory sensitivity, sensory overload, anxiety, and panic attacks. Some organisations provide sensory kits (or any sensory inclusion initiative) for Autistic children. Awareness is increasing that sensory sensitivity is experienced by a number of health conditions, and that they are beneficial to all ages.

Further reading

There is limited scholarly literature on sensory sensitivity in the cultural sector, with current literature and many current practices aimed towards autistic child-focused programs and research. The following literature list, though not exhaustive, shows in their very focused investigations the gap in research in adult sensory sensitivity research. 

Neuro-inclusive built environment design

Built environment neurodivergent design guides are increasingly being published, aiming to assist organisations and learning institutions in understanding and identifying barriers and how to provide effective and inclusive design for autistic people and those with sensory conditions. The British Standards Institution developed the ‘Design for the Mind - Neurodiversity and the built environment guide’, which is a detailed design guide on the fixed environment (Hewitt, 2022). Dublin City University was designated the world’s first autism friendly university in 2018. Magda Mostafa and Dublin City University developed ‘The Autism friendly university design guide’ to assist in the “inclusion and support of access for autistic individuals, particularly in learning environments” (Mostafa, 2021, p. 7). Autism CRC’s ‘Guidelines for Creating Autistic Inclusive Environments’ is a co-designed guide to assist in the creation of “physical and psychological environments that support and promote optimal participation, engagement, comfort and learning” (Gatfield et. al., 2018, p. 6). 

Kathryn Finnigan’s (2023) Master’s thesis ‘Neuro-inclusive spaces: Sensory-responsive environments’ provides lived experience and research data on neuro-inclusive built environments. Finnigan’s research aimed to understand the experience of environmental impacts on people with sensory sensitivity, and highlights the differences between hyposensitivity and hypersensitivity.

Natasha Mickovski (2022) Master’s thesis ‘Design enabled: The everyday refuge for a neuro-inclusive city’ investigates accessibility and obsolete building standards that are insufficient for people with invisible disabilities, particularly those who are neurodivergent. It explores new design guidelines that enable the user's senses.

Sensory inclusive resources

If you are wanting one go-to book on sensory inclusion, this is it. Hutson and Hutson (2024) provide in-depth information on sensory inclusive resources in chapter 3 of their book ‘Inclusive Smart Museums’. They detail the combined use of sensory kits, social stories, wayfinding apps, and sensory maps in addition to interactive immersive storymaps to provide a holistic sensory inclusive experience. They provide detailed information on sensory kits items and their purpose, and sensory map elements to include for all senses. Hutson and Hutson also incorporate heritage sites and provide examples of museum type specific resources to include in the kits. The authors also highlight sensory sensitivity over autism or neurodivergence.  

The built environment guides mention sensory kits to varying degrees. The British Standards Institution’s  ‘Design for the Mind’ guide suggests that ‘interventions’ should be provided such as noise cancelling headphones or ear defenders, screen overlays, sunglasses, a cap, a blanket or cushion, handheld fidget items, and seating that had movement. Dublin City University’s ‘The Autism friendly university design guide’ identifies the need for sensory kits and lists them under ‘tools of compartmentalisation’, suggesting that sensory kits should include stress balls, tactile supports, ear plugs and so on, and be placed on free standing shelving systems throughout spaces. Autism CRC’s ‘Guidelines for Creating Autistic Inclusive Environments’ do not specially mention sensory kits, however they suggest to provide sensory fidget tools, a weighted blanket, and to use communication preference stickers. 

Sensory inclusion programs

Michele Kong et. al (2017) detail a two-year sensory inclusion research project for children they undertook with Kulture City. ‘A community-based sensory training program leads to improved experience at a local zoo for children with sensory challenges’ provides the qualitative research project results.

Riley McNally’s (2024) Master’s thesis ‘What does it mean to be sensory inclusive? A case study of KultureCity’, investigates the difference between sensory friendly and sensory inclusive. It explores KultureCity’s sensory inclusive training and resources through six American cultural institution case studies. 

Rachel Schwartzman and Christen Knowles (2022) detail the implementation of a children focused Sensory Sensitive Program (SSP) at the Eugene Science Center in Oregon. In ‘Expanding accessibility: Sensory sensitive programming for museums’ they explore sensory sensitivity and sensory processing disorder, detailing sensory seekers and sensory avoiders, including the shortage of literature on these sensory differences. They provide in-depth information about how to be accessible to both sensory types, community partnering, and planning for these program types.

Co-design

Ross Edelstein (2022) is an autistic researcher. In ‘New foundation: Principles for disability inclusive museum practice’, he proposes a roadmap which museums can use to become more disability aware. Edelstein highlights five key principles in genuine inclusion: accessible programming should not be just for children; power structures need to change  and people with disabilities need to be included in planning and processes; creating connections with the community and making the effort to be accessible is more important than small details; be creative and think how things can be done differently to foster anti-ableist attitudes; and providing basic disability support is the starting point.

References

Edelstein, R. (2022). New foundations: Principles for disability-inclusive museum practice. Journal of Museum Education, 47(2), p. 192-205. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10598650.2022.2073093 

Finnigan, K. (2023). Neuro-inclusive spaces: Sensory-responsive environments [Masters Thesis]. University of Colorado.  https://www.proquest.com/docview/2938153326/fulltextPDF?pq-origsite=primo 

Gatfield, O., Hall, G., Isaacs, K., & Mahony, J. (2018, April). Guidelines for creating inclusive Autistic environments. Autism CRC. 

https://www.autismcrc.com.au/sites/default/files/inline-files/Guidelines%20for%20Creating%20Autistic%20Inclusive%20Environments%20(002).pdf

Griffin Occupational Therapy. (2020, December 18). What is sensory overload?. https://www.griffinot.com/what-is-sensory-overload/

Healthline. (2018, September 27). What is sensory overload? https://www.healthline.com/health/sensory-overload#takeaway

Hewitt, J. (2022). Design for the mind - Neurodiversity and the built environment - Guide. British Standards Institution. https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/insights-and-media/insights/brochures/pas-6463-design-for-the-mind-neurodiversity-and-the-built-environment/ 

Hutson, J., Hutson, P. (2024). Inclusive smart museums: Engaging neurodiverse audiences and enhancing cultural heritage. Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-43615-4 

Kong, M., Pritchard, M., Dean, L., Talley, M., Torbert, R., & Maha, J. (2017). A community-based sensory training program leads to improved experience at a local zoo for children with sensory challenges. Frontiers Pediatrics, 5, Art.193. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2017.00193   

Leonard, J. (2021, August ). What to know about sensory overload. Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/sensory-overload 

McNally, R. (2024). What does it mean to be sensory inclusive?: A case study of KultureCity [Master’s thesis, Drexel University]. https://doi.org/10.17918/00010504 

Mickovski, N. (2022). Design enabled: The everyday refuge for a neuro-inclusive city [Master’s thesis, Laurentian University]. Laurentian Scholaris. https://laurentian.scholaris.ca/items/6fcaec37-5515-4684-aaa4-06806b61a387 

Mostafa, M. (2021). The Autism friendly university design guide. Dublin City University.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351936605_THE_AUTISM_FRIENDLY_UNIVERSITY_DESIGN_GUIDE 

Rowe, S. (2022, October 11). Sensory overload, how to recognise it in others, and how to help. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sensory-overload-how-recognise-others-help-samantha-rowe/?trackingId=R3F7ukRgSdWHNR%2BwCbgCEw%3D%3D 

Schwartzman, R. & Knowles, C. (2022). Expanding accessibility: Sensory sensitive programming for museums. Curator: The Museum Journal, 65, p. 95-116. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cura.12452