Inclusive businesses | Welcome to autistic customers

From the giant Walmart to Quebec companies like St-Hubert or even the Bell Centre and the OSM: businesses are reinventing themselves to include the neurodiversity of consumers who are just waiting to visit them.

On Sunday lunchtimes, the lights are dimmed in some St-Hubert restaurants. The music is also turned down and certain customers are given the best tables, those that are set back, for more peace and privacy.

These well-cared-for customers have a variety of neurological conditions. They are often people living with autism spectrum disorder. And they sometimes find going out to restaurants rather painful. So, they prefer not to go – which sometimes deprives entire families of a good time.

However, autistic customers exist and only ask to live these experiences, and to consume, like everyone else.

At St-Hubert, this inclusion in the dining rooms first went through a pilot project last year. About a hundred families visited the four restaurants that participated in the project.

“It was very touching. For many people, it was their first family outing to a restaurant,” explains André Pereira, head of adult education and employability at À pas de géant, the institution that worked with St-Hubert on this project.

The adaptation of the offer for autistic consumers is multiplying. The movement is global, and it is accelerating.

Walmart Canada announced last week that there will now be a “sensitive” environment on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in its stores.

The chain has been testing the concept in the United States for a few months, where customers can shop in less harsh lighting and without a radio playing in the background in the mornings, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. The idea is to reduce visual and sound stress in the environment – ​​an atmosphere that will appeal to more than one customer, neurotypical or not.

Welcome kits

At St-Hubert, 13 restaurants are now participating in the inclusion program. Ultimately, the idea is to offer the services in all restaurants.

“This summer, we want to see how we could adapt this project to express rotisseries,” says Josée Vaillancourt, communications director at St-Hubert.

In the dining rooms, customers are provided with a sensory kit that includes earmuffs to eliminate noise and a small timer that allows them to better assess, in concrete terms, the time it will take to receive their meal or to know how much time is left before departure. The consumer can visualize the steps, which is reassuring.

If families are the natural clients for this type of program, we can well imagine that an adult would want to treat himself to an outing, alone, knowing that the establishment he is visiting has a certain sensitivity to his condition. The kits are offered at all times, in participating restaurants.

St-Hubert worked with the Autiste & Majeur Foundation, in partnership with À pas de géant. The Quebec chain also offers a virtual tour on its website that allows all its customers to find their bearings before going there, to reduce the unknown and the unexpected that make everyone nervous.

Lower your voice

In some places, it’s a challenge to keep your voice down.

“We have been working with the Montreal Canadiens for two years to make the Bell Centre more inclusive,” announces André Pereira of À pas de géant.

Several initiatives are being carried out simultaneously by Groupe CH, which also offers quieter shopping hours on Sunday mornings at the Bell Centre boutique.

“There is a whole potential clientele,” says André Pereira. “In tourism, in particular. It is one of the groups with the greatest growth.”

Aéroports de Montréal has clearly understood the importance of facilitating travel for a neuroatypical clientele – regardless of the traveler’s condition or age. In addition to an accompaniment service already offered, ADM has just joined the Tournesol program, launched in 2016 at Gatwick Airport in England.

For the past ten years, there has also been this “children first” day where we welcome young passengers with autism spectrum disorders and their families at the Montreal-Trudeau airport. They experience the entire process, including check-in and airport security.

“This year, 200 people participated in the day,” says Sarah-Ève De Lisle, Head of Accessibility and Regulations at ADM.

The event, organized in partnership with Autisme Montréal and À pas de géant, is mainly attended by families. “It allows them to assess the feasibility of a family trip,” says Sarah-Ève De Lisle.

ADM is also working on a pilot project that allows passengers to be accompanied by a dog from its canine squad to facilitate the journey through the airport, a process that can be stressful for many travelers.

Going to the concert, finally

Cultural businesses also increasingly have inclusion programs that allow new spectators to pass through their doors.

Over the past two years, the OSM has presented three “relaxed” concerts that allowed a new clientele to feel at home.

How ?

By leaving the doors open, reducing the lighting – concerts are usually given in a darker environment. We have also set up quiet areas outside the hall, for spectators who need a break during the performance.

“Music is the same for everyone, but it doesn’t resonate the same for everyone,” says Mélanie Moura, head of youth programming and mediation at the OSM.

“In any OSM concert, each person who is seated has their own story, their own reactions, their own emotions,” says Mélanie Moura. “Yes, there are cognitive, neurological, behavioral, and disability differences. But how do we manage to have a successful experience together?”

This is what we asked ourselves at the OSM, after having held workshops with young people from all backgrounds.

The Orchestra is considering standardizing certain adaptations, such as quiet areas outside the hall, because any spectator may need to take a few breaths.

An access guide is also available to everyone, online. It simply indicates how a show unfolds, from arrival to exit, for customers who need to be reassured. “We try to make things predictable to avoid anxiety,” says Mélanie Moura, who insists: the music is the same for everyone.

The OSM is not alone: ​​TOHU offers “relaxed” performances and Espace pour la vie is developing a project that includes sensory kits and videos. The group includes the Biodôme, the Biosphère, the Botanical Garden, the Insectarium and the Planetarium.