With a strong commitment to becoming autism friendly, the Old Royal Naval College in London decided that a holistic approach would prove beneficial to becoming more inclusive.
We applied for the Autism Friendly Award from the National Autistic Society as we believed this would give us an opportunity to identify our current strengths as well as helping us to improve in areas where we may be lacking.
Through the application we identified our specific challenges: a large site, a need for staff and volunteer awareness, no quiet room and very noisy hand dryers in the toilets.
To address these issues we have introduced the following measures:
The costs of these measures have been about £650, including the award application.
The great news is that we have recently been given the Autism Friendly Award. It’s a fantastic achievement and is just the start of big plans.
Over the next three years of our £8.5 Heritage Lottery Fund Painted Hall project we plan to work with local autistic groups to help guide us in becoming more autism friendly, including the development of resources for schools and families.
Ellen Lee is the learning producer at the Old Royal Naval College. She has written a blog for the National Autistic Society website on how museums can become more autism friendly.
We applied for the Autism Friendly Award from the National Autistic Society as we believed this would give us an opportunity to identify our current strengths as well as helping us to improve in areas where we may be lacking.
Through the application we identified our specific challenges: a large site, a need for staff and volunteer awareness, no quiet room and very noisy hand dryers in the toilets.
To address these issues we have introduced the following measures:
- providing pre-visit information on our website, which not only gives information on our venue but also includes a noise reduced route map;
- purchasing ear defenders for visitors to use on site;
- delivering regular basic autism-awareness training for all staff and volunteers;
- identifying quieter areas where visitors can rest and recover if feeling overwhelmed.
The costs of these measures have been about £650, including the award application.
The great news is that we have recently been given the Autism Friendly Award. It’s a fantastic achievement and is just the start of big plans.
Over the next three years of our £8.5 Heritage Lottery Fund Painted Hall project we plan to work with local autistic groups to help guide us in becoming more autism friendly, including the development of resources for schools and families.
Ellen Lee is the learning producer at the Old Royal Naval College. She has written a blog for the National Autistic Society website on how museums can become more autism friendly.