Accessible Design for Neurodivergence: Expert Insights on Sensory-Friendly Forever Homes with Ron Wickman

In this episode Ron shares his perspective: accessible, universal, and inclusive design isn’t specialized—it’s simply good design. But when designing for neurodivergence, the focus shifts toward creating calm, choice, and sensory-aware environments that support regulation and well-being.

Calm is Foundational
Designing for neurodivergent individuals often means reducing overstimulation. This includes thoughtful choices around color, lighting, acoustics, and layout to create a soothing, predictable environment.

Wayfinding Matters More Than You Think
Simple navigation within a home can significantly impact comfort and independence. Subtle visual cues—like consistent flooring and strategic use of color—can either support or hinder movement.

Choice = Dignity and Control
Ron emphasizes that the most important design principle is choice. When individuals can move freely and make decisions within their environment, it enhances autonomy, reduces anxiety, and improves quality of life.

Sensory Design is Critical

- Lighting: Opt for dimmable, low-flicker LED lighting with soft, diffused tones

- Acoustics: Use insulation and acoustic panels to minimize noise

- Materials: Choose matte finishes to reduce glare and sensory overload

- Temperature: Ensure consistent, comfortable climate control

These elements don’t just benefit neurodivergent individuals—they improve the experience for everyone.

Space Variety Supports Regulation
Incorporating a mix of open, social areas and smaller, cozy spaces allows individuals to choose environments that match their sensory needs. Dedicated sensory rooms can also offer a safe place to decompress.

Every Individual is Different
There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Designing for neurodivergence requires listening, curiosity, and collaboration with families and caregivers who understand the individual best.

Parents Are Powerful Designers
Families often develop incredible, intuitive solutions tailored to their child’s needs. Trust your instincts, get creative, and don’t be afraid to challenge limitations.

Plan for the Future
Design not just for today, but for what your child may need years from now. Early, proactive planning creates more sustainable and supportive living environments.

Advocate and Stay Curious
If someone says something “can’t be done,” dig deeper. Innovation often comes from questioning assumptions and seeking better solutions.

Final Thought:
You are the expert on your child. When you combine your insight with thoughtful design, you can create a home that supports not just survival—but true comfort, independence, and thriving.

Check out Part 1 in Episode 23!

Live with Intention - Embrace the Journey🎒

Connect with Ron

Google Ron Wickman Architect online to visit his website and explore his publications on accessible housing.

Check our Ron’s resources…👇🏽

https://www.ronwickmanarchitect.ca/resources

Connect with Valerie

info@foreverhomeconsulting.ca

Music Acknowledgement: Audio Coffee - Denys Kyshchuk

Editor: Scott Arbeau

Link for book: The S.H.I.N.E. Principle: The special needs mom's path to strength, hope and happiness by Valerie Arbeau

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CW18ZXGX (Canada)

Learn more about your host at:
https://coachingwithvalerieanne.com/

Transcript

 00:00:04:23 - 00:00:33:11]

Valerie

Welcome everyone to today's episode. So glad that you're here. And we really, really appreciate you showing up and supporting this podcast. We also really appreciate you sharing the episodes with those who can benefit. And we know you're doing this because the downloads are increasing. So thank you. Thank you so much. And hey, don't stop!

Today we have part two of a conversation with Ron Wickman. Ron is an architect, author, and activist from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, who specializes in accessible architecture. And he's been doing this since 1995.

Ron specializes in providing consulting services for persons with disabilities. Ron is also committed to providing affordable, accessible, adaptable, and healthy housing. Ron has written many articles plus two books on accessible design. He has been a guest speaker and a participant in numerous sessions involving accessibility, innovative housing, urban, and community planning.

Ron came into the world of persons with disabilities through his lived experience with his father. Check out the first conversation we had in episode number 23.

In our last conversation, Ron shared with us strategies to consider when designing an accessible home, which takes into account those with physical disabilities.

Today, we're going to explore how we can accommodate the needs of our neurodivergent children in their forever home. Welcome back again, Ron.

[00:01:43:21 - 00:01:45:20]

Ron

Thanks. Thanks. It's great to be here.

[00:01:47:06 - 00:02:08:09]

Valerie

All right, Ron. So when you think about designing a home for neurodivergent individuals, what fundamentally changes compared to designing a typical residential home, and how does an age in place model shape your design decisions from the very beginning?

[00:02:10:21 - 00:02:12:05]

Ron

It's a great question.

One of the things that those of us in this design world, designing for people with disabilities, one thing we like to say and promote is that accessible design or universal design or inclusive design, depending on how you want to define it, really is just good design. 

[00:02:58:05 - 00:03:07:12]

So a lot of the things that go into designing a home for people who are neurodivergent or people who are aging, most of the things that we do are not specialized, they're really just good design features that really would help anybody and everybody. Having said all of that, probably the biggest thing that I recognized in designing a group home, especially for people who are neurodivergent, is we just have to make it a bit more calming. 

A great learning experience for me was a group home I did for a group called LARCH, which is an international organization. It was started by a Canadian and it was especially designed to create group homes for adults with developmental disabilities, mostly Down Syndrome.

And the unique thing about that group home project is typically there are 10 bedrooms.

[00:05:33:18 - 00:05:40:04]

They're designed to fit into a neighborhood. So they are designed to look like the other homes in the neighborhood.

Six of the bedrooms would be for adults with developmental disabilities and then four of the bedrooms would be designed for caregivers. And a lot of times the caregivers would come from different parts of the world to gain a unique experience.

So I guess if you're from South America or something, coming to Canada in the winter may not be the experience you're looking for. But nonetheless, you know, and I later found out that a lot of times very strong relationships are formed and sometimes marriages even from the caregivers that come. 

So in the one project that I worked on, they talked about having a what they called a roundabout or a walkabout. And it basically is a circular pathway inside the house that allows residents to just get make sure that they follow that path in a circle and allow them to just get some walking and so on. And again, of course, as you're well aware, neurodivergency is very, very diverse. So some people have more complex needs, others very minimal. And credit to the client and staff that I worked with on the design of the home. The designer in me thought right away, well, let's make that walk about a different color of floor.

[00:07:13:14 - 00:07:37:04]

Knowing that I wanted to make it wheelchair accessible, it would be the same flooring type, but just a different color. So then we have no transitions from one flooring to another. I was highly encouraged to leave the flooring all the same color because a lot of the residents might find it difficult to step outside of their room onto this different colored pathway.

And once they got on the pathway, they might struggle to get off of it because they just they don't like that transition of one color to the next. So that was really fundamentally my biggest learning lesson. 

And so we then would use color and texture contrast in areas where we really want visually to draw your eye, let's say, towards and things like painting the door of a mechanical room, painting it out the same color as the walls would make it kind of disappear, whereas the doors to the residence rooms might have a bit more color to them.

So, so this whole idea of how people get around and wayfinding was by far the biggest challenge for myself, as somebody who had a pretty strong understanding of the needs of people who use wheelchairs, for example.

I did get more projects that allowed me to continue my own education and experience in this in this area.

[00:09:58:08 - 00:11:07:22]

Valerie

Wow. So it sounds like you've basically taken the hands-on approach to learn as you're going. And I think that that's kind of cool, because then you're able to get instant feedback, right. And then be able to adapt as needed as you're working with the population that actually needs these adaptations for them so they can either age in place or they can live with some sense of calmness. I love how you brought out the calmness. Just understanding that need for sensory regulation and creating that within a home.

So talk us through how we can regulate some of our people in their homes.

[00:11:07:22 - 00:11:23:17]

Ron

Yeah, so the one thing that I think is just absolutely critical in all of this and probably the most critical issue and you know. If I could go back and rename my own master's thesis project, it would just be called choice.

And I think we want to design and that's why wayfinding is so important for people who are neurodivergent. We want to make an environment so that people feel that they're in control of their own environment and have the choice to move in the way that they want to move.

And this really hit home for me when I thought about it and looking back at my own experiences of my father.

In those days in the 1960s and 70s, there was really only our home that was accessible to my father. And so, you know, for the most part, friends came over to our house, where my dad could easily get in and out of the house and could easily use his washroom. And every once in a while he would give in and allow friends to have him over, but it was always an ordeal because we'd have to help him up the stairs, and then it could get to the point where if my father had to go to the bathroom and, you know, more often than not, the bathroom doors weren't even wide enough to get through. So it's like, you know, I'm going to pee in a cup outside in the hallway of the bathroom and somebody's going to dump it out. So, it was either me or my mom that would do that for him. So, you know, that's again, not something that, you know, most people would have experienced growing up like myself. And, really what my dad wanted more than anything, and I think anybody with a disability and anybody period, we just want to be able to make choices that allow us to live our best lives, right? And when our choices are impeded, then that becomes problematic.

Bringing this all together into one project where we're thinking about a diverse range of disabilities is a big challenge.

I grew up thinking about design as if I were in a wheelchair. And as I gained more experience, I thought in place. And now I'm actually living that, right? I'm 61. So, I'm kind of that aging in place person now. So, some of these things are really hitting home in a very personal way. So, I think for any designer, that's the big challenge is how do you get to a point where you have that deep understanding? And I think you have to be curious. As a designer, ask lots of questions and sometimes go out of your way to find out information, right? 

 So, I think it is a challenge for designers to really get, their heads around what it's like when it comes to the issue of neurodivergency. What can be very problematic is the individual who's experiencing that disability can't often speak for themselves as to what they need, right?

And the group homes that I've worked on have been for adults with developmental disabilities or neurodivergency, mostly to do with Down syndrome.

And one of the things that I discovered too is that people with Down syndrome can actually start experiencing forms of dementia very early in their lives, like in their 30s.

[00:16:10:16 - 00:16:11:04]

Valerie

Okay.

[00:16:11:04 - 00:16:15:19]

Ron

So, again, learning about that, people with dementia can often get very agitated if they're not feeling like they're in control of their own environment, or their own lives, in essence, right. And I had that challenge in the last number of years with my mom, and unfortunately, she passed away last summer.

But I could see that for her, what was very difficult was the fact that she knew she was losing control of not only her environment, but just of her life, right, relying more and more on me to take care of things, her grocery shopping and all the rest. And we don't really understand what that's like if we don't experience that ourselves, until we experience it ourselves. I often rely then on caregivers and parents of children, who have neurodivergency to kind of be my guide.

Because I don't always know. But I think myself, and any good designer, first and foremost, should be good listeners.

And listen, because again, every situation is different. If you design, you know, a building for somebody who's autistic, then you've designed a building for that person who's autistic, but nobody else. 

[00:18:02:15 - 00:18:33:17]

Valerie

Yeah, so it sounds like it needs to be very individualistic. So I know, in my little limited research, sort of lighting acoustics, material choices and spatial variety. These are often cited as creating calm and comfort. So from an architectural perspective, how do sensory aware design choices directly impact regulation, behavior and overall well-being for our people that have neurodivergency or sensory processing differences? And as you mentioned, even dementia?

[00:18:35:01 - 00:19:04:17]

Ron

Yeah, so, so this is something that I've been doing even more research on now. I'm currently doing a home in Medicine Hat for a group called Core. And it's a six-bedroom group home. And in 2010, 11, I designed a group home for them was 10 bedrooms, we'd actually converted an old elementary school into a 10-bedroom group home.

And, and this gave us another chance to look at it so many years later. This group home that we're working on now is brand new. It's in a kind of suburban neighborhood of Medicine Hat.

And overall there's been a lot more research in sensory development. Neurodivergency is something that does get researched quite a bit now.

And I think we're still kind of in the baby stages of it. But certainly, issues around lighting, especially artificial lighting, acoustics, even heat and temperature control, all of these things have a real effect on people who generally would be more sensitive toall of these issues. I took in a presentation from a designer in England who talked about lighting.

And something I wasn't aware of is that you can get a bit more specific about the lighting that you that you choose.

And just within the LED realm. So up until fairly recently, I would pick LED lights because they're energy efficient.

Without really knowing that there's a real diversity there. And you can be a bit more specific about the LED lighting that you want.

What in general is lacking is that understanding. So I find that out as an architect. And then I try to talk to the suppliers and they're not aware of all the things I'm always asking for. So it's hard for me to find experts in the area, even in the area that you know, people are working at selling lights or installing lights.

[00:21:05:01 - 00:21:05:11]

Speaker 1

 Interesting.

[00:21:05:11 - 00:21:13:15]

Speaker 2

 The LED lighting that that I've discovered is most beneficial in a group home situation, in my research is that you have to specify that you want it dimmable. So dimmable lighting is really effective for people who are neurodivergent. And again, I would say that that goes back into the realm of good design, right?

Everybody kind of benefits from having dimmable lighting, I think.

The one thing though that is really tricky is even LED lights provide what they call flicker. So sometimes it's not always visible to everybody, but again, a lot of people who are neurodivergent kind of pick up on it a little bit easier.

And so you have to make sure that you make the supplier of the lighting aware that you want something that is as flicker free as possible. And that would go to any building too. So especially like if you work in an interior environment eight hours a day, you might be experiencing headaches and not even know why. Well, it might have something to do with the lights and the flickering. And it's just not always that obvious. So there's been a lot of research into that. And they've done some experimentation with that. And some people are finding that with this flicker free lighting, their headaches and fatigue are kind of going away.

[00:24:12:03 - 00:24:13:11]

Valerie

Wow. Interesting.

Ron

So yeah, it is really interesting. Now it's really hard to always find, because the research is so fresh and new, it's hard to find lighting that kind of meets that mark. But you can obtain a greater flicker free result with a high-quality diffuser in your lighting.

[00:24:41:14 - 00:24:42:17]

Valerie

Okay.

[00:24:42:17 - 00:25:02:20]

Ron

So you just you have to make sure that you're picking lighting that does that. And then you can also get the lighting so that it has a just little color. So you can make sure that you pick something that is on that range of the color choices.

[00:25:02:20 - 00:25:03:22]

Valerie

Yeah.

[00:25:03:22 - 00:25:10:13]

Ron

And then, if you want to spend a bit more money, there's all kinds of smart technology out there with lighting as well.

So, I've been able to kind of bring that this time around compared to last time, just a better understanding myself of the complexities of lighting.

[00:25:20:22 - 00:25:21:23]

Valerie

Yes.

[00:25:21:23 - 00:25:34:21]

Ron

And then when it comes to acoustics, again, just being able to bring a bit more into that acoustical panels you can get now that are relatively inexpensive. And so trying to deaden the sound and make it as quiet as possible is a really good strategy that you want to make sure that you do.

And back to lighting, with natural lighting, you just want to create as much natural lighting as you can, as much diffuse lighting as you can, just a soft even kind of tone. And make sure you do things that reduce glare.

So the placement of windows becomes important. And finishes then on your floors and your walls, kind of a more matte finish, less high gloss sorts of things are really really critical to reducing that that glare.

High gloss is typically easier to keep clean, though. So, you know, again, there's always that that back and forth.

[00:26:43:16 - 00:26:44:21]

Valerie

Right, the trade-off.

[00:26:44:21 - 00:27:47:19]

Ron

The trade-off and so on. Yeah. And then when it comes to heating and cooling, this group home will have air conditioning as well. But we made sure the engineer, mechanical engineer involved has all the, it's a forced air furnace, so has all the ductwork with insulated ductwork, which is again, a little bit beyond what you would normally see in residential construction. So just again, those sorts of strategies that just really help deaden the sound and a lot of these things with good research and so on, don't really cost that much more money. But you know, they will find themselves in single family house houses of families that have children that are neurodivergent, right? Yeah, so those are some of the things that certainly are prominent on my mind right now with this new project.

[00:27:47:19 - 00:27:51:13]

Valerie

So this new project, when will that be done?

[00:27:54:24 - 00:28:05:21]

Ron

Well, they're gonna get started in the spring. So I anticipate probably like an eight month, six to eight month construction time timeline.

So we decided in wintertime last year, that starting in late November, early December would not be a good idea.

[00:28:17:13 - 00:28:18:05]

Valerie

Right.

[00:28:18:05 - 00:28:31:08]

Ron

And now we're waiting for the weather to warm up. And yes, given that I've seen temperatures like 10 degrees, we may be able to get started sooner in the Medicine Hat area.

[00:28:31:08 - 00:28:31:22]

Valerie

Yeah.

[00:28:31:22 - 00:28:33:10]

Ron

So that's been quite warm.

[00:28:33:10 - 00:28:36:02]

Valerie

Yeah, this has been very unusual for Canada.

[00:28:36:02 - 00:28:37:13]

Ron

It is yeah.

You know, it is all part of our challenge as architects to create good thermal qualities in our buildings and insulation. You talk about insulation providing a quality of heat reduction in your homes and make more high efficiency homes for your heating bills and all that kind of stuff. But we also, speaking about the acoustics, we bring in a lot of insulation in the walls between bedrooms and so on, for example. And that really does help deaden the sound significantly.

[00:29:41:03 - 00:29:59:22]

Valerie

Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing that. I just want to go to spatial spaces and having spatial variety you'd mentioned that I'm just wondering, is that a consideration for the new building that you're building now, just having different types of areas for people to hang out in?

[00:29:59:22 - 00:30:00:20]

Ron

Yeah.

What would I have done with the group homes I've worked on is, I've recognized that the residents have different families. So I've tried to create an environment where you could have different pockets of space for different families to meet all at the same time. So in the group home currently that we're doing, there is a bit more of a formal dining living area that has a taller vaulted space.

And then there's also a smaller kind of more cozy living area, which just has an eight-foot-high ceiling.

So there's there's opportunities to have different spaces for different situations.

[00:30:54:06 - 00:30:55:06]

Ron

We do have snoozeland rooms, the sort of therapy room or however you want to refer to it, but there is a sensory room that we have as well, which will be nice for small gatherings.

So yeah, there's a lot of different spaces that we've provided throughout the house. And you know, it's not a huge project. So there's not a lot of different spaces, but there are some of these different spaces that again, allow for different situations. And having good acoustics with that and the lighting, the ability to really kind of play with artificial lighting, for example, allows you to create different sensory environments within the one building itself. Yeah. And the rooms themselves are sizable enough that you could, have family right in the bedroom as well. So not overly big, but big enough to have a couple extra chairs and so on. Yeah. So it is really quite nice that way. Yeah.

[00:32:05:04 - 00:32:19:18]

Valerie

Yeah. So, translating that what you're doing in this building, which sounds like it's going to be an amazing project when it's done, do you have any words for our families about creating some spaces in their homes that have neurodivergent people or children?

 [00:32:24:04 - 00:32:33:22]

Ron

Well, yeah, like I think, but really, really important thing is to is to have a good designer, right? So as to have somebody involved.

A lot of times we just don't have that luxury even to hire designers. So we have to do a lot, of this ourselves. And, in my experience, I find that parents of children with disabilities, for example, are become pretty good designers themselves, right? I'm always amazed at how, how nicely they do things. And yes, sure, there's some, you know, there's some detailing that I might do differently and all of that. But a lot of that stuff's just kind of visual.

And it's really finely tuned designers that would pay attention to that sort of thing.

Just last week, actually, I went to visit a family and their 10-year-old daughter is neurodivergent and quote, very, very complex needs. She's nonverbal. And they're, in the midst of a lawsuit. But they, decided, I can't really get into too much detail, but they decided to do some work to the home now, rather than like waiting.

And, you know, they're fortunate enough to be in a situation where they can do this. And I was very, very impressed with, what a good job they did.

And so it's really nice. They were restrained in their color choices. 

So there's some subtleties there. But generally, they really knew, they really knew what they wanted, and they really knew what to do. And they had to be inventive. There's just a little area of the kitchen that they created a bit of a platform for their daughter, and she sits in her wheelchair on an incline. They have to think this stuff through. And fortunately, the husband, the dad is, is a kind of contractor, woodworker type person. So, they can sort of take advantage of their own skill set and their own knowledge.

[00:35:07:09 - 00:35:30:22]

Ron

Never, take no for an answer, or you can't do that, or it doesn't meet code. Like, make sure you find out for yourself. Yeah, I find in this business, whether it's the designer or the contractor or the supplier, they're quick to, to say no to something or it can't be done to something that they're just not familiar with themselves.

And because it's the easiest path of travel for them, right? I've learned this, just make sure that you find out for yourself that if they're saying it can't be done, then make sure it can't be done. And more often than not, you'll find out it can be done. And, and then what does the person say? You go back to them and they go, Oh, well, well, sorry, I guess I was wrong.  

You just have to be really, really vigilant. 

So, just the pure research, there's not always a lot of information out there, but it is out there, right? And, and you can find it.

[00:36:41:10 - 00:36:54:21]

Valerie

I find if you just start talking and then somebody can connect you with someone that maybe has been through something similar, or this is what they're working on. So it does pay to share what it is you're thinking about.

[00:36:54:21 - 00:36:55:07]

Ron

Absolutely.

[00:36:55:07 - 00:38:10:09]

Valerie

And the other thing as you were talking, I'm just thinking too, and it sounds like this family that you just mentioned, obviously assess their child's needs. So, you are the expert on your child. Yes. So one of the things that I say to my clients is assess the need of your child, not just for now, but for future. And so that you can start, And as you said, planning early and this family have not waited, they're actually doing the planning now and they're implementing what they've learned on what they foresee their child will need or their daughter will need in time. So just want to remind our audience that it's never too early to start planning. Talk to people because there's somebody that's been through similar to what you're going through or something very the same. And so it is important to be sharing, get in community and share with people. And as Ron has mentioned several times, talk to somebody that has experience with design and make sure it's somebody that has design experience with accessibility. And as we've been discussing today, it's not just the physical layout of the home. It's all the interior stuff that can create that calming space for our neurodivergent children that will be beneficial for not just them, but for everyone, right? We all need regulating. I didn't know about regulation until not too long ago.

So I'm understanding that I need regulating too.

Anyway, Ron, where can our families go to find out more about you?

[00:38:19:13 - 00:38:22:17]

Ron

Well, I have a website. Google Ron Wickman, architect.

And my website is populated with a lot of links to the podcasts that I do, the writing and so on. So the website is trying to be more educational than it is like sort of promotional about my design abilities per se, but they're all linked. They're all tied together, right? Like this, the information is important to me to become a good designer. And one of the things that I wanted to mention too is that I think is really important for people to recognize is that really good design comes from a really good client. And anything that I've ever done that I think is worthy of like a design consideration as being something, you know, on the more positive side is because I had a client that was also quite knowledgeable and eager to do as much as they can. And so again, my clients tend to be thinking about disability as a really important issue. So when I have a client that has a lot of knowledge and is very active and willing to learn, and is curious and wants to, you know, do something more than just the average,

good results happen. And as you said, understanding what it is that you're trying to do becomes vital. 

So and it's such a good point you make about not just always focusing on the here and now, but to focus on the future. And the third part of all of that would be then to have a designer that has had experience like myself. So I'm not the only one, but you have to kind of seek out people. And one big mistake would be to assume that as architects, we've all been trained the same way that we all, you know, as long as you're an architect, then you must know something about disability. That is not true.

[00:40:35:17 - 00:41:14:20]

Ron 

There's more things as a designer that I don't know than I do know. Right. It's a complicated world. I don't know a lot about designing an airport facility. I've experienced walking through one, but I wouldn't really know exactly all the intricacies of doingthat. I've worked as a consultant on rec centers, but I don't think I would like to be the architect that has to be aware of all of the intricacies of making this all work.

The area that I really have kind of focused on is, is disability.

If we're not designing to at least consider people with disabilities, then who are we designing for? And, we want to do good design. So good design should include people with disabilities. 

[00:41:42:15 - 00:41:46:15]

Valerie

Well, thank you so much, Ron. So appreciate you being with us here today.

[00:41:46:15 - 00:41:47:15]

Ron

You're welcome.

[00:41:47:15 - 00:42:22:18]

Valerie

And I just want to say, we have so enjoyed your conversation. And don't forget, the first part was in episode 23. And this one will be part two. So I hope you, audience have enjoyed and gained something. And I think the thing is that we can take away is that don't underestimate your thoughts and your abilities for what your child needs. Okay. All right. 

So audience, thank you so much for being here. Live with Intention - Embrace the Journey.