Sensory comfort of autistic students

Providing sensory comfort at a university is a challenge for the academic community, and understanding the experiences of young autistic people seems essential in this process. Individual experiences reveal what needs to be changed at the university so that the growing number of autistic students can study in a more welcoming environment. Using an interpretive approach in a qualitative research strategy, the experiences of 12 young autistic individuals were examined to gain insight into their interpretation and understanding of sensory comfort. Sensory comfort is interpreted as the absence of overwhelming sensory experiences and a condition whose absence significantly impairs social functioning, including academic performance. It depends not only on environmental and social factors but also on personal preferences. A university should be an environment that is welcoming and free of overwhelming sensory experiences, even if this is only the result of each university’s strategy.