Enhancing the capacity of autistic people to use public transport

This research sought to address community mobility challenges experienced by young autistic adults. The project focused on public transport access and was conducted across Western Australia and New South Wales, Australia. The project aimed to design, develop, and evaluate a public transport trip planning mobile application that facilitates public transport use for autistic individuals. The research was co-produced, meaning that at each step of the research, the team were working with autistic individuals, their families, and carers to ensure that any solution that arose from the research was one that was built together with the wider autistic community.

The project produced an evidence-based piloted technology solution, OrienTrip, to assist autistic individuals to use public transportation. It was found that:

• OrienTrip is helpful in facilitating public transport use for autistic individuals
• OrienTrip can improve autistic individuals’ ability and confidence to use public transport independently
• OrienTrip can be improved by making it easier to use.