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Empowering Autistic Travel

The National Autistic Society’s Research team carried out a year-long research project about travel for autistic adults

 

Aim and purpose


The aim of the research, which began in April 2024, was an in-depth exploration of autistic people’s experiences of travel and transport, to gain a better understanding of:

  • barriers to comfortable, safe travel;
  • the impact those barriers cause;
  • and possible solutions to make services more accessible and autism friendly. 

Research question:

“How can we address the most significant challenges experienced by autistic adults using trains, buses, taxis and similar forms of transport in the UK?”

We know this is an important topic for many autistic people, yet we found a distinct lack of quality research addressing this. You can read more about why we carried out the work in our launch news story. 
 

Participatory, user-led approach


We wanted to capture the experiences of as many autistic people as possible. We were also keen to hear from parents/carers, and friends and family members of autistic people. It was essential to work closely with transport providers too. Throughout the project we gained a lot of insight through surveys, interviews, focus groups and workshops. We worked with a co-design group of autistic people, who we consulted with at each stage of the project. The group helped to steer the project, make decisions, review draft documents, and prioritise. 


On this page we will be publishing a full project report, easy to digest summaries, and other information and resources. We look forward to sharing project findings, statistics, quotes, examples of good transport support, and more from April 2025.

If you have any questions you can contact the Research team at research@nas.org.uk.


 

Funding


This project has been made possible thanks to generous funding from the Motability Foundation. The Motability Foundation funds, supports, researches and innovates so that all disabled people can make the journeys they choose. 

Related links

Transport

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Leisure and going out

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