Indoor thermal and visual well-being of people with autism: preliminary results from a field study in Denmark

Abstract

The literature contains very little knowledge regarding the indoor well-being of people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). Though, when dealing with higher autism levels and specific co-morbidities, the lack of autonomy of potential subjects makes standard comfort studies difficult or even impossible. As part of the EU-funded project “SENSEwellbeing”, the present paper shows the preliminary results of a field study on the indoor thermal and visual well-being of non-autonomous people with ASC, performed in a Danish care-center. Due to the fragility of the subjects involved and ethical issues related, we had to overcome several challenges. A determining example is the limited possibility to directly involve the subjects and make interventions in their private spaces in comfort-related experiments. For this reason, the caregivers working in the facility were involved in a semi-structured interview to indirectly characterize the thermal and visual preferences of subjects. Additionally, short- and long-term measurements of indoor quantities were taken in common rooms and empty living spaces. The interviews’ outcomes were linked to the environmental measurement, allowing a preliminary characterization of the adequacy of indoor design in terms of well-being of non-autonomous people with ASC. The study highlights the differences in perception of thermal and visual environment among people with ASC, and the necessity to find solutions to more directly involve non-autonomous subjects in studies on the indoor environment. The present research may also inspire other studies with people with special needs, whose comfort perception would otherwise be challenging to collect.