Shivani Shah on “Sensory All”
Meet Shivani Shah, an architect specializing in neuro-diversity inclusion, as she introduces in this film an innovative initiative “Sensory All”. It is led by her and is designed to make public and private spaces more accessible and inclusive for neuro-divergent individuals. The film showcases Sensory All’s groundbreaking work in developing sensory-friendly spaces, tools, and programs that promote neuro-inclusion, aiming to bridge the gap in accessibility through specialized design, high-tech solutions, and advocacy.
Sensory All is a division of AxcesAble designs but I would say that it’s not a division, it’s a dream.
It’s a vision to look at how spaces could be neuro-diverse friendly.
We are creating a holistic accessibility approach to neuro-divergence, right from looking at neuro-diversity accessibility audit, the first of its kind developed.
Uh we are looking at creation of multi-sensory rooms, uh uh sensory kits, also AAC based signages system in the built environment, sensory mapping to help predictability in the environment, uh social and visual stories, of course and very robust sensitisation and training programs for people. So that is all Sensory All will be about.
And uh Sensory All is looking at integrating high-tech uh, high technologies to looking at how this Inclusion could be more beneficial and automated also.
So we’re working very hard on this and hopefully we are able to create a change where we will be saying, “this café is a neuro-diverse friendly café, why don’t we all just go there?”
So, that’s the kind of the vision that we have.
Hi, I’m Shivani.
I am an architect and I’m an accessibility professional that specializes into neuro-diversity inclusion.
Studying architecture during the third year, I realized this one very big question, who are we designing for?
Uh that question really came into uh my mind morely because of my personal encounters with mental health issue.
And when I very closely personally experienced mental health challenges and I saw that uh how environment was impacting me.
So being an architecture professional, I was always about spaces.
How is space making me feel or behave
And then when I started facing issues, I started realizing, okay but uh, why is this space making me feel like that and that space is not making me feel like that?
So, in certain environments, with certain lights, with certain ambience, I used to feel very differently, and then I got very interested in understanding what’s the correlation between space, behavior, architecture and of a general response that got me into environmental psychology.
It’s a different field of study, uh and also at an intersection of neuroscience and architecture.
Space was a powerful tool and the tool had to have some kind of a usage for making people’s life better.
Fast forwarding to three years into architecture, after third year, fifth year, final year, was when I, in my exploration encountered this particular thing called autism.
I got very closely introduced to people with autism, what it means to have a life of autism and how people around you get affected in good way and in bad way, both.
So, that was my entry point into disability.
Um, in my final year thesis, um I took up a research thesis of looking at how environments could be designed for children with autism, specifically learning environments.
I was told, ‘take this up in PhD, take this up, it’s a master’s level understanding’, because it’s not just about architecture, you have to get an whole idea of who people with autism are, not just medically but what do they see, what do they talk, what do they feel, how do they respond, how do they say form, color, light, shadow, what it is all about, right?
And that exploration is very difficult to do when you have no entry into the world of people with autism.
And I think what really helped me was, my two visits.
So, I did a very thorough study and went to Action for Autism, in Delhi.
I had a whole 8 day study plan, and they were like, ‘uh why eight days? Students of architecture come, morning and go, evening, it’s a one day study, it’s a two day study, max three days, what are you going to do for eight days?’
And I said, I’m not doing a study, I’m understanding life.
And then, coming back to the second study in Autism Ashram in Hyderabad, so that was also again 8 days, 9 days, full blown residential study.
I learnt a lot, I learnt a lot about behavior and spaces and environment.
That started my journey, 2019, and then here we are in 2024 and me living my dream, talking about neuro-inclusion, neuro-access, uh and doing the kinds of advocacy and awareness that I dreamt of doing.
I got into reading a lot of autobiographies and I co-related how autobiographies were describing physical environment, in their autobiography.
So, things like need for order, foreground and background, need for boundary, the importance of color, texture, I started understanding through autobiographies.
Because if you look at designing for autism, need for order, need for uh preparedness, all this comes, but why? And how does it translate to your real life experiences is what I wanted to know about.
Few months here and there, I came across Vidyasagar, and I think, one of the most important support systems in my life is uh Poonam akka and Vidyasagar.
She’s very instrumental and Vidyasagar is very instrumental in this journey of whatever I am able to do.
And Nasscom Global Inclusion Summit was one such pilot project which led to the start of Sensory All.
So I established AxcesAble, which is uh AxcesAble designs LLP, my startup, two years back.
And I wanted to see how I can look at neuro inclusion, but I started with looking at accessibility overall, but Nasscom Global Inclusion Summit was a place where I pitched to them uh and said that, “Okay, we’re going to make your event neuro-diverse friendly”.
We’re going to do 7 interventions, we’re going to look at Sensory overload, we’re going to look at Anxiety, we’re going to look at Mental confusion, we’re going to look at Awareness, and we’re going to look at how to provide Support.
Five things we’re going to do in different ways, and we’re going to make sure your event is neuro-diverse friendly.
So, doing this and getting in touch with many corporates, I realized, okay, there is a huge, huge huge awareness gap and also demand because many people want to have people with neuro-divergence in their workforce but have no idea where to start with.
There are many parents who want to, who are still looking for modifications and ways to reduce the anxiety and meltdown but have no way, no idea how to look at infrastructure.
So this infrastructural gap was what I thought was already there but it was validated in the summit.
It received great response.
Then I was confident enough to start something like Sensory All, which is a division now in uh my startup which looks at neuro-diverse inclusion.
Sensory Kit is a portable self-toolkit.
It has various elements for various stimulation.
A tactile mat for tactile stimulation.
It’s a visual timer bottle, for attention restoration and focus.
We have a pop-it pipe, for fidgety hands.
Then again, a fidget tool which has spinning movement, and rotating movement, again for fidgety hands.
We have ear plugs – too much noise outside, put ear plugs and be calm and nice.
We also have a pop-it uh, a pop-it tool again, and this is a smelling kit.
Smelling kit is for olfactory stimulation, with different aromas that help you calm down.
And lastly, we have very nice uh scratch book, for any kind of anxiety, uh you can use a scratch pad, and comes with a manual to understand how to use.
Dive Deeper: More on Disability
Learn about the most common inquiries surrounding disability, education, legislation, accessibility, employment and other sectors related to disability.