Mobility Policies and Extra-Small Projects for Improving Mobility of People with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

The paper focuses on the relationship between cities and people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Specifically, this research aims to provide practical guidelines on how to design urban policies and urban design projects, such that they improve the capabilities of people with ASD to walk across the city and access relevant public urban spaces and facilities. Although this is a well-defined field of research, this paper should be seen as a contribution to the debate on the understanding of disability as a product of processes of human-environment interaction and as an attempt to address issues of mobility for people with disabilities by taking into account their personal characteristics and capabilities. Current methodological and operational efforts on the role of spatial configuration as a means for improving the autonomy of people with ASD focus almost exclusively on the design of closed, separated, private spaces, devoted only to people with ASD (mainly children). Starting from these considerations, the paper describes a research project aimed at defining an integrated set of urban mobility policies and extra-small urban design projects to provide people with ASD a real opportunity of using their city.