airport sensory room! part 1
Opened in 2019, this sensory sensitive environment was named after an airport worker’s autistic son. He shared his idea for the sensory room after seeing how his son Presley had such a positive experience with the sensory room available to him in his preschool program. While not the first sensory room to be added to a US airport, it is the first one to include multiple rooms within the space. It has soundproof quiet rooms, a room specifically for adults, as well as a common room. There is also a transitional room, like a foyer (but cozy!), and room designed like an airplane cabin. The cabin room has a few rows of fully-functional seating, including seatbelts and overhead compartments, for new fliers to practice boarding a plane and seeing what the cabin will be like inside. I had flown before, so I knew what to expect in that regard, but when I saw the practice cabin in Presley’s Place I wished that had been available to me the first time I’d flown!
My experience in the sensory room was idyllic! The variety of furniture was not your standard waiting room type of hard chairs and stiff couches. There were gym/tumbling-style mats and foam structures for sitting, lying, reclining, tumbling, and curling up in/on/under. The “pillar” chair you see me using in the following photo ends up filtering out sound, like a reverse-amphitheater effect, by the way it curves around and above your head while seated. My favorite feature in Presley’s Place were the colorful bubble lamps! (also pictured below) I loved watching the bubbles and changing colors from the reverse-amphitheater chair.
There is no bathroom inside the sensory rooms, but right next door there is a bathroom that includes an adjustable sink and adult changing table. Since a code is needed to enter the sensory room, I understand why the bathroom has an outside door (when you gotta go, you gotta go!) but I do wish there was at least a single-occupancy “standard” bathroom inside. That however, is my only complaint!
Side note: the code to enter Presley’s Place is obtained by using the courtesy phone by door, which calls a staff member who tells you the code. This could be challenging for someone who is non-verbal or struggles with phone calls, but hopefully someone with those challenges is not traveling completely alone.
No one else happened to be using the sensory space at the same time I was there, so I had free reign of the common room which was very nice. I did use the adult quiet room to eat a snack with my mom, because it had a proper table, but I enjoyed most of my time in Presley’s Place in the common area (where the bubble lamps are). It was a wonderful space to regulate and stay calm in while I had nearly three hours to wait for my flight (I’m chronically Way Too Early™️ and also the flight was delayed a bit). It brought me such joy, and relieved so much stress and pre-flight jitters. Plus, it offered a special way to spend that time with my mom before I flew to another continent by myself.
So many aspects of travel can cause intense overwhelm and sensory overload for people with autism or other sensory challenges/disorders. I hope that inclusive spaces like this soon become the norm in airports, making air travel more accessible and less painful for everyone.
More background info about the creation of this space, like how it was developed by advocacy groups with actual neurodivergent individuals and caregivers, can be found at the Fly Pittsburgh website:
One final note: I cannot find an all-inclusive list of airports that have sensory sensitive rooms, but after a quick G00gle search, here are some others across the US and the around the world that I was able to find information about:
- Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, Atlanta GA
- Myrtle Beach Airport, SC
- Seattle-Tacoma, WA
- Dublin Airport, Ireland
- Bristol Airport, UK (England)
- Gatwick Airport, UK (England)
Additionally, “Airport Rehearsals” are offered at some airports in Canada, including the Montreal-Trudeau, Calgary, and Vancouver Int’l Airports
Next post will be from my mom! She wanted to talk about Presley's Place too, and I'm excited to share her post! Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss it :)
take care of yourself <3
~Heather
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