Dr. D?nal Fitzpatrick:

Several speakers raised this interesting point. Properly designed acoustics in a building very much benefit people with autism. I am a totally blind person. I navigate by using the cane. Well-designed buildings with well-designed acoustics along with some tactile markings are also very beneficial. Dr. Hartney made the point that what benefits one group of individuals often benefits a significant number of groups, which is why we go back to the whole notion of a universal design environment. I will give one quick concrete example. Airports can often be busy, especially over the summer. The acoustics in many airports throughout the world actually make navigation problematic particularly when there is no tactile paving whatsoever. As is clear from this morning's discussion, modifications to that space would clearly benefit me as a blind person and clearly benefit people with autism as well. We need to look at this very much holistically taking into account the use needs of multiple groups of people. Multiple different scenarios of use are very important.