In the project Sense BSR, municipalities, cultural, sports and tourism centres work with neurodiverse communities to redesign public recreational spaces, making them more inclusive, welcoming and better suited to the needs of neurodiverse people.
The project tackles the challenge of making public recreational services more accessible for neurodiverse people (NDP), addressing persistent gaps in service design that overlook sensory, communication, and participation needs. Target groups include local public authorities and service providers such as museums, cultural, sports and tourism centres, who lack tailored knowledge, tools, and frameworks to adapt their services to NDP needs. Currently, they struggle to integrate NDP oriented practices into daily operations due to limited expertise, resource constraints, and absence of actionable guidance. Barriers include insufficient training, lack of co-creative methods oriented to service users, rigid service models, and ineffective communication strategies. The project’s output - “Toolkit for inclusive design and provision of public recreational services for neurodiverse people,” will provide accessible means to (re)design NDP-friendly services. By fostering the development of inclusive service design, sensory adaptation, accessible communication, and operational integration, the project addresses knowledge gaps among target groups and enables their sustainable adoption of NDP-oriented practices. Beyond direct participants, project outcome will encourage wider public institutions and community stakeholders to act by offering replicable frameworks that expand equitable recreational service access and drive systemic change towards the inclusion of NDP needs across the BSR.