Dr. Mary Rose Sweeney:

The general ethos and the conversations about autism are positive. We are reducing stigma. The students told us at the outset that they felt stigmatised. They did not feel they could disclose even to the disability and learning support services, to their fellow students and to academic staff. That is changing now and people feel that they can disclose that. Disclosures have gone up and registrations with the university have gone up. Students are using the facilities of the project. Some of them know that it is part of the autism-friendly university project. Others do not even know that, but the project has been translated and embedded so well that they are not even aware that the sensory pods or the escape hatches, for example, are part of the project. A neurodivergent society has also been set up as part of this project. There are currently 44 students in that, and it has provided a huge social space for them to hang out and be in a chill space together where there is a lot less pressure to talk to or to communicate. They just go along and are part of a fun committee or society. Those are three practical examples. There are other less visible issues, such as the cultural shift, the conversation, the awareness and the fact that everyone is getting a little more familiar and comfortable with the whole concept of an autism-friendly university.