Accessibility and Archives: Autistic Access to the Archive survey

In this blogpost, new professional James Keech presents findings from the dissertation he submitted in 2023, about the Autistic user experience of archives.

In the summer of 2023, I researched and wrote a dissertation about the experience of people on the Autism spectrum when accessing an archive in person and online. This was completed while I was at University College London, studying a Masters in Archive and Records Management. This looked at primarily barriers to access and whether autistic users had positive or negative experiences using archives. In addition, what autistic people used the archive for and the demography of archive users

I wanted to research this topic due to my personal experience of being on the autistic spectrum and because there was not much material on autistic access to an archive. There have been articles on disability and archival access from Andrew Whiteside, Clare Victoria Jeremy and Gracen Brilmyer. For example, Clare Victoria Jeremy showed the importance of archives making adjustments under the Equality Act and suggested, for example, noise cancelling headphones should be purchased to provide an adjustment for some disabilities. As will be shown later in the post this is relevant to autistic archive users. Although when doing my research, I could not find an article which specifically covered autistic access and this why I chose to cover it.  Within society there is an increasing interest in autism and making environments accessible for autistic people to improve inclusivity. According to the National Autistic Society there are 700,000 people in the United Kingdom with Autism. This is a large number of potential users that we as a profession need ensure there is accessibility for.

When looking at how autistic people use archives, I concentrated on their experiences using archive buildings and services. As a great deal of access to archive material takes place in an archive, I believed it was most important to research this area. I did also look at how autistic users found archive websites. However, this focused on how websites aided an autistic user for their visit to a physical archive site.

To research my topic, I read widely looking at standards, archival theory and the conditions associated with Autism. In addition, I did a survey of autistic archive users and personally visited six archives across England. When researching autism, I was able to gain an insight into factors in an archive environment that could negatively or positively impact an autistic users experience. These factors were: the archive website, accessibility, layout and space, user service, equipment and specialist support, temperature, smell, noise, lighting and  building decorations. As an example, I found autistic people may be under sensitive or over sensitive to smell. In the survey for autistic users of archives I asked respondents to rate on a scale of one to five and write in their own words how different factors had affected them. To take part in the survey they needed to have visited an archive. In addition, I included questions to get data on the demography of autistic archive users. When I visited archives, I thought about how the environment of each archive could affect an autistic user. For example, I would look at the layout of a room and assess through observation whether it would be suitable for an autistic archive customer.

My findings revealed that the majority of autistic users found using the archive to be a positive experience. There were fifteen respondents to my survey and thirteen selected that they had a ‘good’ or ‘very good’ experience, with no respondents selecting the option below average. Potential archival barriers did not generally stop autistic respondents from accessing the archive. Having visited archives, I could see why, as I found the archives that I visited to be friendly, welcoming environments, with detailed information to enable me to plan my visit. In addition, factors such as the archive website, accessibility, layout and space, user service, equipment and specialist support, temperature, smell, noise, lighting and  building decorations, were all at levels to ensure I had a positive experience visiting the archives. Regarding the demography of the survey respondents, female was the most selected category, most of the respondents were under thirty-four, they were employed and the majority had an undergraduate degree or above. There was a multiple-choice question for archive usage and ten chose they used the archive for work related use. Six used the archive for academic purposes, five for research, four for personal use and two selected other.

My findings show that archives can be a great place for autistic users. There are a range of environmental and customer service factors which generally create the conditions of making the archive accessible for autistic people. For example, I found that archives are mostly quiet places when visiting them, or from the feedback I received from the surveys which suggested this. This matters, because some autistic people are particularly sensitive to sound. Autistic people should be a group that archives should seek to outreach to. This can contribute to archives playing an active role in care and support in society as the archive has the potential to provide good user satisfaction for autistic people. In addition, more awareness within the autistic community could lead to greater archive usage.

However, there are measures archives can take to also increase accessibility. Some autistic people would define themselves as disabled, whereas there are others who would not define autism as a disability. Under the Equality Act 2010, organisations are obliged to make adjustments for disabled people. This increases the importance of archives making adjustments to make them fully compliant with the Equality Act 2010. From the survey responses, I was able to identify a number of adjustments archives should consider. Greater awareness of autism for archive staff should be considered. Training and awareness of serving autistic customers can vary across workplaces. With greater awareness this can lead to more adjustments being implemented to ensure the archive is fully accessible to autistic customers. Some features that can help are: purchasing assistive technology such as noise cancelling headphones, remove fluorescent lighting if this is in the archive building and if the light and temperature can be altered, autistic customers should be informed of this. Keeping archives quiet or at least an area of an archive, remains important for autistic people who may be sensitive to noise. Some decorations have the potential to be overwhelming such as patterns for example and should therefore be avoided.  Autism guides should also be created by archives to enable autistic archive users to be prepared for their visit. Wigan and Leigh Archives for example, has created a good guide for autistic users.

There are some autistic people who have more severe conditions who would not be able to visit an archive and I did not get their input on the study. The archive profession should look to consult with this group in future to find strategies or procedures to make the archive more accessible to them.

Overall, I believe my research has shown that archives are great resource for autistic people to use. At the same time changes could be implemented to further improve inclusivity.

We welcome guest blogs of a similar nature.  We are also interested to hear feedback from readers of all the blog series produced by the Diversity and Inclusion Allies.  In either case, please email diversityandinclusion@archives.org.uk .