by Alex Lloyd Gross
People on the Autism Spectrum are sometimes overwhelmed with things that the rest of us take for granted. Fire trucks and police cars with sirens and lights, Loud noises, impatient commands from people. Things go bad quickly when an untrained person takes action because the person they are attempting to communicate with does not engage with them quick enough.
A company called Kulture City is in the process of training all city workers on how to communicate with people on the spectrum. To date, over 16000 city employees have gone through the training. The Innovation Fund awarded the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities a grant to launch the city’s first-ever Sensory Inclusive Initiative to provide training and supportive elements to increase the awareness, understanding and available support to create a sensory-inclusive city. Through the project’s partnership with Kulture City, the city provided accessible, multilingual, and role-based training to its workforce in October and November 2023. Additionally, the project will launch a lending program in early 2024 for departments that include the use of sensory bags and 3 mobile sensory stations for their community engagements and meetings. This pilot project aims to facilitate future expansions of these efforts to include quiet areas, sensory rooms and more supports so everyone can feel included, welcome, and access city programming and departments more equitably.
The Phillies and Eagles are ahead of the curve, and already have in place special accommodations for people. They have small sensory bags with items inside to help the guests get through an exciting, yet at times traumatizing experience. These bags include headphones to block out excessive noise, When someone scores on the field that noise can be a sensory overload. The same when an overpaid athlete under performs or an official makes a bad call. The chorus of BOO is commonplace in Philadelphia. While it may be commonplace for most, others go deeper into their shell.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com Mobile sensory stations at the podium before the news conference.
Kulture City held a news conference yesterday to announce that Philadelphia is the first ever city to get this kind of training. In 2024, the city will have three mobile sensory stations, to help people cope with what is going on. They will work to get 100 percent of the city work force to take this training. It is not just children. Adults can suffer from this as well.
At the news conference, the Eagles sent Swoop and the Phillies sent the Phanatic, The Phanatic kept trying to engage Mayor Kenney in his antics. Kenney, however was having none of it.