ABSTRACT
Social justice movements significantly changed design culture over the last twenty years. The disabilities rights movement, in particular, has had a profound impact on building design. But there has been more attention to accommodating mobility and sensory issues than cognitive issues. Built environments can pose many barriers for people on the autistic spectrum (AS) due to their unique cognitive structures. Although design for people on the AS has received attention by designers and architects, existing design guidelines often lack a scientific basis and may lead to questionable outcomes. Further, useful knowledge from scientific research is not being applied consistently in design for this group. To bridge the gap between research and practice, the authors applied knowledge translation methods to the existing scientific knowledge on the AS to produce design recommendations for classrooms. This paper describes the knowledge translation process used to identify key knowledge in this field and examples of how it can be applied in design. The implications for future research on the topic of knowledge translation in design for the Autistic Spectrum (and design in general) are provided.
