Purpose: This study aims to investigate and propose guidelines to enhance the accessibility of virtual reality (VR) interfaces for all users within professional learning environments. Motivated by a lack of comprehensive accessibility guidelines for VR learning, the study delves into a case study of Edstutia's VR campus.…

Researchers have examined autonomous sensory meridian responses (ASMRs) focusing on known experiencers and the nuances surrounding those occurrences. This exploratory study was developed in response to existing ASMR research focusing on individuals who were not necessarily known ASMR experiencers. My goal was to better understand whether these…

Attending a concert may prove difficult for individuals with exceptionalities or disabilities and those who support them. While traditional performance environments may not feel welcoming or amenable for individuals with exceptionalities and their families, arts organizations have recently made efforts to produce concerts that address barriers to…

Many teachers and parents of young children with disabilities, particularly autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are familiar with young children who engage in repetitive and restrictive behaviors such as flapping, spinning, and rocking. This type of restrictive and repetitive behavior, or stereotypy, can be common, over time it can become problematic…

Outdoor experiences allow teachers to focus on expanding child learning in different domains. Nature experiences can sharpen child senses, enrich vocabulary, increase spatial understandings, and permit more practice for large muscle skills. As well, teachers can arrange outdoor activities to promote positive peer cooperation and aesthetic…

One essential way to support students with autism is to "show up" for them. Showing up means connecting and building relationships with learners and trusting students to show us what they most need to boost their learning and social growth. Snow shares scenarios from her years as a special educator that showcase ways educators can…

While historic house museums have traditionally employed verbal-based programming, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often feel most comfortable engaged in sensory learning. Historic house museums, due to their tangibility, have the potential to tap into sensory experiences that can teach history to this audience. Despite this…

Our objective was to use a community-based participatory research approach to identify and compare barriers to healthcare experienced by autistic adults and adults with and without other disabilities. To do so, we developed a Long- and Short-Form instrument to assess barriers in clinical and research settings. Using the Barriers to Healthcare…

Caring for children with disabilities contributes to increased levels of parent stress or caregiver strain. However, the potential relationship of sensory features to strain among caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities (DD) is unknown. Sensory features include overreactions, underreactions,…

Results from previous research studies suggest that inclusive settings benefit all learners. However, general education teachers often do not have built in supports within the classroom to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Implementing a sensory diet curriculum (SDC) is one instructional practice that addresses needs of students with…

Through their bodily interaction with the designed environment, disabled people can detect obstacles and appreciate spatial qualities architects may not be attuned to. While designers in several disciplines acknowledge disabled people as lead or critical users, in architectural practice their embodied experience is hardly recognized as a valuable…

This current issues piece will explore how autobiographies written by people with autism can help identify sensory processing differences that might be viewed as possible attributes in an enabling society, but for which ableist perceptions are often negative. In concrete terms, these constructions may be preventing people from entering employment…

This study investigated the seated activity among children educated in special schools and their adult carers in two sensory gardens in the United Kingdom. Seated activity was established whether the seating was used as intended or whether users preferred to sit on other attributes during their learning session. The objectives of this study are to…

As a society, we have a responsibility to provide an inclusive built environment. As part of the need to promote inclusion, there is now a growing trend to place pupils with special educational needs (SEN) into a mainstream school setting. This is often facilitated by providing a specialist SEN resource base located within the mainstream school.…

Synesthesia is a neurological disorder that has to do with the "union of the senses." The literature reveals that students with synesthesia are affected with various degrees of severity. Students may hear a bell ring. Their brain is wired to take that sound and interpret it differently, through color, texture, taste, sound or temperature among…