What is a Workplace Sensory Audit?
A plain-language guide to sensory audits - assessing environments for sensory accessibility and making practical changes that support neurodivergent people.
A workplace sensory audit is a assessment of an environment's sensory characteristics - identifying what might cause distress, overload, or discomfort for neurodivergent people.
The core idea
A sensory audit examines all seven senses across an environment: what you can hear, see, feel, smell, and taste, as well as proprioceptive and vestibular input. It identifies potential triggers, rates their intensity, and recommends practical changes.
The goal is to identify and reduce unnecessary sensory stressors, provide options and escape routes, and ensure that the environment does not actively exclude people with sensory processing differences.
Sensory audits can be conducted in offices, hospitals, schools, shops, and homes. The principles are the same - assess, identify, and adapt.
Why understanding matters
Most environments are designed without considering sensory processing differences. Fluorescent lighting, open-plan noise, strong cleaning products, and unpredictable sounds are standard features that can make spaces inaccessible for neurodivergent people.
A sensory audit provides a structured way to identify these barriers and make evidence-based changes. Many adjustments are free or low-cost - turning off unnecessary lights, providing quiet spaces, or allowing headphones.
Loren Snow
Hats Darley
Kathryn Clark
A sensory audit examines all sensory channels in the environment. These are the key areas.
Auditory environment
Background noise levels, echoes, sudden sounds, HVAC systems, conversations, doors, keyboards, and the availability of quiet spaces.
Visual environment
Lighting type and intensity, natural light availability, screen glare, visual clutter, colour schemes, and movement in the visual field.
Tactile environment
Seating comfort, temperature, air flow, surface textures, clothing requirements, and physical contact expectations.
Olfactory environment
Cleaning products, air fresheners, food smells, perfumes, ventilation, and proximity to kitchens or bathrooms.
Proprioceptive factors
Seating options, boundaries, movement opportunities, break spaces, and the ability to change position throughout the day.
Vestibular factors
Floor surfaces, stairs, lifts, open staircases, heights, slopes, and the spatial layout that affects balance and orientation.
A sensory audit produces practical recommendations at different levels of investment.
Free changes
Turning off unnecessary lights, allowing headphones, providing quiet hours, making a sensory map, adjusting thermostat, removing air fresheners, and creating informal quiet zones.
Low-cost changes
Draught excluders for doors to reduce sound leakage, plants for visual softening and providing boundaries, fidget tools, and signage for quiet zones.
Investment changes
Dedicated quiet rooms, lighting upgrades, acoustic panels, sensory rooms, and environmental monitoring systems.
Cultural changes
Scent-free policies, noise awareness training, flexible working options, sensory passports, and normalising sensory needs.
Sensory audits apply to different environments with different priorities. Select a tab to learn more.
Office Sensory Audit
Offices are the most common environment for sensory audits. Open-plan layouts, fluorescent lighting, and constant background noise create significant challenges for neurodivergent staff.
Common Issues
- Open-plan noise
- Fluorescent lighting
- No quiet spaces
- Strong cleaning products
- Temperature extremes
- Visual clutter
Common Solutions
- Quiet rooms or pods
- Adjustable desk lighting
- Noise-cancelling headphones policy
- Scent-free cleaning
- Individual temperature control
- Decluttering and visual calm
Clinical Environment Sensory Audit
Hospitals and clinical settings present extreme sensory challenges. For neurodivergent patients, the sensory environment can make healthcare inaccessible - leading to avoidance, distress, and poorer health outcomes.
Common Issues
- Bright overhead lighting
- Beeping equipment
- Antiseptic smells
- Crowded waiting rooms
- Physical examinations
- Unpredictable environments
Common Solutions
- Quiet waiting areas
- First/last appointments
- Dimming lights where possible
- Sensory passports
- Advance information packs
- Allowing comfort items
Home Sensory Audit
Home should be a sensory sanctuary, but shared living, household noise, and daily demands can still create challenges. A home sensory audit helps identify and address triggers in the domestic environment.
Common Issues
- Appliance noise (fridge, boiler)
- Shared space compromises
- Lighting quality
- Bedding textures
- Neighbour noise
- Cooking smells
Common Solutions
- Variable seating zones
- Noise machines or earplugs
- Blackout curtains
- Sensory-friendly bedding
- Routine and predictability
- Personal control over environment
If you want us to carry out an environmental audit, reach out. It is normally most effective when paired with sensory training for the team, because some sensory changes are personal, low-cost and within staff members’ own control.
Loren Snow
One of our neurodivergent team visits the workplace, looks at each area of the space, and completes a formal assessment. We provide a written report, then meet with you one-to-one to work through practical solutions that fit your budget.
The aim is not to make every environment perfect. It is to create more variation, choice and recovery options, so people can regulate their sensory experience instead of having to tolerate the same stressor all day.
In open-plan spaces, small changes can create useful variation: high-backed seating or non-enclosed pods for acoustic dampening, plant boundaries or a desk nearer a wall or corner, and quieter areas for people who need respite.
Other straightforward examples include draught excluders to reduce door noise, pressure changes and sound leakage; clear stair-edge strips; matching light fittings to reduce inconsistent flicker; window film or shaded panels to reduce glare; and felt, foam or carpeting to reduce vibration from wooden floors. In hospitals, a simple key fob can reduce the continual sound of jangling keys.
When a team is asked broadly what they struggle with in a space, it can be difficult to name anything. After an environmental audit, people often recognise the specific things found, and everybody can recognise something that affects them.
For non-neurodivergent staff, a sensory stressor may be most noticeable on a difficult day or during a season of change, such as having a newborn or going through menopause. For a neurodivergent staff member, it may be affecting productivity and sense of capability every day.
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