Designing for Neurodiversity: A Co-Created Living Lab on Sensory Rooms in Higher Education

The ZHAW is looking into setting up sensory rooms, for students to help them deal with the stress of everyday university life. Around 22% of people estimated to be neurodivergent (e.g., autism). For them, the university environment can result in sensory overload and lead to health issues. Many highly qualified neurodivergent individuals feel forced to leave educational or work contexts because their needs are not adequately addressed.

To address these challenges, the project will assess the need for sensory rooms, their equipment, and principles of use, develop a co-designed concept, and test a prototype as a living lab with users. Other universities (e.g., Fribourg) have also set up such rooms to reduce stress and sensory overload and promote health, well-being, and performance.

Special attention is given to neurodivergent students and employees as well as people with disabilities; however, the entire university community should benefit according to the principle of universal design. The project combines co-design with field-based effectiveness testing and derives recommendations for operation and scaling. It contributes to SDGs 3 (health), 4 (education), and 10 (inequalities) and supports the ZHAW in creating an inclusive and learning-friendly campus environment.

The project focuses on the participatory development of an evidence-based equipment and usage concept for sensory rooms. Following a systematic assessment among students, furnishing elements and usage guidelines will be co-created in participatory design workshops. On this basis, a prototype sensory room with multisensory resources to support self-regulation will be implemented in a pilot room at ZHAW and iteratively tested and refined together with users. Stakeholders from ZHAW (diversity, BGM/SGM, and facility management) as well as neurodiversity experts from occupational therapy, public health, psychology, computational health, and workplace management will accompany the project. The outcomes will comprise a concrete, scalable equipment and usage framework to inform the future design and operation of sensory rooms at ZHAW.