Designing hospitality through sensory workshops for Autistic people with eating disordered behaviour
Abstract
We report on a series of sensory workshops and research interview training conducted with young Autistic people with lived experience of eating disordered behaviour. This under-researched co-occurence has been explored by a collaborative of clinical psychologists, peer researchers and participants through creative methods novel in this domain, led by a participatory design researcher. The paper outlines the design of the workshops, and discusses the insights generated around the key themes of environment, eating utensils and foods. It proposes a set of recommendations and creative opportunities for the hospitality industry to explore a range of approaches including ‘Autism-friendly days’ that may make eating space more accessible to individuals who are currently excluded due to sensory issues. It finishes with our reflections on learning to adapt participatory sensory workshop materials and processes for Autistic research participants.
Keywords
Autism, Eating Disorders, inclusive sensory workshops, hospitality
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2296
Citation
Kettley, S., Buchan, K., Pickard, A., Maloney, E., Allen, R., Glasgow, C., and Gillespie-Smith, K. (2026) Designing hospitality through sensory workshops for Autistic people with eating disordered behaviour, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2296
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Designing hospitality through sensory workshops for Autistic people with eating disordered behaviour
We report on a series of sensory workshops and research interview training conducted with young Autistic people with lived experience of eating disordered behaviour. This under-researched co-occurence has been explored by a collaborative of clinical psychologists, peer researchers and participants through creative methods novel in this domain, led by a participatory design researcher. The paper outlines the design of the workshops, and discusses the insights generated around the key themes of environment, eating utensils and foods. It proposes a set of recommendations and creative opportunities for the hospitality industry to explore a range of approaches including ‘Autism-friendly days’ that may make eating space more accessible to individuals who are currently excluded due to sensory issues. It finishes with our reflections on learning to adapt participatory sensory workshop materials and processes for Autistic research participants.