What Do Autistic Independent Travellers Actually Need?

After understanding what airports currently provide, the second thread asks a more important question: What do autistic adults actually need in order to travel independently?

This distinction matters because tourism research has historically given limited attention to neurodivergence, while much autism-and-tourism research has concentrated on children travelling with parents or caregivers. Jepson, Stadler and Garrod argue for tourism research to move toward a social-model approach in which the industry considers the barriers it creates for neurodivergent travellers.

More recent autistic-led airport research and research specifically involving autistic adults begins to give a clearer picture.

1. Predictability

One of the strongest themes is not simply anxiety, but uncertainty.

Research into autistic adults' experiences of public places found that unfamiliarity, inconsistency and lack of information could increase the impact of difficult sensory environments. Providing information beforehand increased predictability.

For air travel, uncertainty exists everywhere:

How busy will security be? What will they ask me to do? Where exactly do I go next? When will my gate appear? What happens if it changes? What will boarding look like?

The right information at the right moment.

2. Sensory Control

Airports combine multiple potential sensory pressures:

• crowds
• announcements
• lighting
• smells
• queues
• movement
• physical searches
• unfamiliar spaces

Autistic-led assessments at six Australian airports identified sensory environments as a major accessibility issue and recommended quieter areas, improved lighting and clearer communication. Research involving autistic adults in wider public spaces also demonstrates that sensory accessibility is individual: the same environment can affect different people differently.

Instead of designing one universal “calm” experience, passengers could potentially be given information and choices about sensory environments.

For example: quieter route, expected crowd level, quiet-space location, bright/noisy areas ahead, time before next stage.

3. Clear Communication

Airport communication is often:

• time-sensitive
• verbal
• unfamiliar
• rapidly changing
• spread across several systems

Recent airport accessibility research identifies communication and wayfinding alongside sensory factors as central barriers for autistic passengers.

Communication, therefore, needs to be clear, literal, consistent, visible, and available before it is urgently needed. Important information should not depend entirely on understanding a tannoy announcement or asking a member of staff.

4. Reduced Cognitive Load

Air travel requires dozens of small decisions: Which terminal? Which queue? What comes out of my bag? Where is security? Do I wait here? Has the gate opened? How long will it take to walk there?

Research examining digital mobility tools for autistic users found problems around cognitive overload and identified a need for clearer, customisable interfaces. The CARES project similarly explores reducing information overload while helping autistic adults plan travel more autonomously.

Could I simplify the next action rather than displaying everything at once?

Potentially:

You are here.

Your next step is security.

Estimated walk: 4 minutes.

Security is currently busy.

Quiet area available nearby.

This is a UX problem as much as an accessibility problem.

5. Autonomy

This is particularly relevant to my focus on independent autistic adults.

Mauro et al.'s research found that, despite difficulties, autistic adults wanted to be able to plan trips autonomously. Their work explored how personalised digital systems might help achieve this while avoiding information overload. Accessibility therefore should not automatically mean assigning someone a member of staff to escort them. For some travellers, successful accessibility may instead mean: needing less help from another person.

That changes the design objective considerably.

6. Control When Something Changes

A prepared journey can still fail because air travel is unpredictable. Flights are delayed. Gates move. Queues appear. Security procedures differ. Connections are missed. This is where static Social Stories and airport PDFs become limited. The wider evidence around autistic sensory experience shows that uncertainty can amplify environmental difficulty.

Accessibility should therefore include disruption recovery. Not just: “Here is what normally happens.” But: “Something has changed. Here is exactly what happens now.” This feels like one of the most important potential spaces for user-experience-led technology.

7. Human Support Without Judgement

Technology cannot solve the whole journey. Staff behaviour remains important because airport processes require interaction with:

• security
• check-in staff
• border control
• gate staff
• cabin crew

The 2026 review of disability and air travel identifies insufficient staff training as one of the continuing accessibility gaps. This is why airports such as Dubai and Birmingham have invested in neurodiversity-specific training.

A successful system should allow passengers to choose rather self-service, digital support or human support rather than assuming one method works for everyone.

8. Different Needs, Not One “Autistic Passenger”

Sarah raised an important question around different levels of need. The National Autistic Society emphasises that autistic people have widely varying support needs, from relatively small communication adjustments to substantial ongoing support. For my design research, I therefore do not think the most useful approach is:

Level 1 user / Level 2 user / Level 3 user as three fixed design personas.

A better model may be:

Sensory need: How much control over noise, lighting and crowds is needed?

Information need: How much information is required to feel prepared?

Communication need: Can information be processed verbally, visually or both?

Navigation need: Can the passenger independently navigate an unfamiliar terminal?

Change tolerance: What happens if an expected process changes?

Human-support need: When does independent travel require staff intervention?

A person could need little support in one category and significant support in another.

My Primary Research

This is where my own primary research becomes especially important. A large amount of existing literature still examines families and autistic children, whereas my project is interested in adults who want to travel internationally and independently. Therefore, rather than treating my interviews as separate from the literature, I can use them to test the themes identified above.

For my conversation with Summer, I want to begin personally:

1. Travel motivation, where would you like to travel? Why there?
2. Barriers? What currently makes you hesitate or stops you from going?
3. Which part of an airport worries you most?
4. Would knowing exactly what the airport looked and sounded like beforehand help?
5. What would you want to practise before travelling?
6. When something changes unexpectedly, what information would help?
7. Would you rather ask a member of staff or have information available yourself?
8. Would you use something such as a Sunflower lanyard? Why / why not?
9. What would make you feel more independent rather than more assisted?

These answers can then be compared directly with the secondary research.

From the research so far, the strongest requirements appear to be:

Potential Design Principles

Whatever I eventually design should probably be:

Personalised — not every autistic passenger receives identical support.

Predictive — useful information comes before a difficult moment.

Clear — minimal ambiguity and cognitive load.

Adaptable — passengers can alter the level of support.

Live — capable of responding to changes.

Optional — support does not remove independence.

Connected — works across different stages of the passenger journey.

Co-designed — developed with autistic adults rather than simply for them.

Key Sources + Links

1. Jepson, Stadler & Garrod — Tourism and Neurodiversity
2. Edwards et al. — Autistic-led Insights on Airport Accessibility
3. MacLennan et al. — Sensory Experiences of Autistic Adults in Public Spaces
4. Mauro et al. — Human-Centered AI for Inclusive Tourism
5. Dos Santos et al. — Accessibility for Passengers with Hidden Disabilities in Air Transport
6. Dempsey et al. — Air Travel Experiences of Autistic Children / Young People
7. National Autistic Society — Varying Support Needs
8. Autistica — Sensory Inclusive Public Spaces
9. CAA — Accessing Assistance and Support
10. National Autistic Society — The Social Model of Autism

Independent autistic travellers do not simply need “more assistance”. They need more predictability, clearer information, greater sensory control and the ability to choose how much support they use.