Shop switches off to help highlight autism

Sainsbury’s Livingston has teamed up with leading autism charity, the National Autistic Society, to support Autism Hour, where shops and services take 60 minutes to provide autistic people with a break from the usual overload of ‘too much information’.

The store will be holding their autism hour on Monday, October 2 at 10am when staff will take simple steps to be more autism friendly. This will include turning down the tannoy, turning off café music and creating a calmer shopping environment as well as providing colleagues with information about autism.

Angela, store manager at Sainsbury’s Livingston, said: We’re extremely proud to be supporting the National Autistic Society’s Autism Hour.

“It’s an excellent initiative which will not only help increase awareness and understanding of autism amongst our colleagues and customers but also provide an enhanced shopping experience for people in the local community with autism.”

Mark Lever, CEO at the National Autistic Society added: “It is really encouraging to see shops and services such as Sainsbury’s getting involved in the National Autistic Society’s Autism Hour.

“Our Too Much Information campaign has highlighted that the smallest changes can make the biggest difference for autistic people and we are confident this event will help shops and services understand how we can work towards a more autism friendly world.”

More than 1 in 100 people are on the autism spectrum which means that someone sees, hears and feels the world in a different, often more intense way to other people. Autistic people often find social situations difficult and struggle to filter out the sounds, smells, sights and information they experience, so the Autism Hour aims to make shopping a more comfortable experience.

To find our more information about attending a National Autistic Society’s Autism Hour, please visit www. autism.org.uk/getinvolved/tmi/autismhour.aspx.