The supermarket chain Tesco has introduced Dementia Friendly tills, with the first example being created in Chester. The idea is that the till will be staffed by someone who has had training through Dementia Friends.
Dementia is currently a high profile area, and justifiably accommodation for people with dementia is a good idea, but it is also a first for disabilities (apart from a wide access till for wheelchairs).
I wish someone would take the initiative to be autism friendly in supermarkets. The tills are often in the noisiest parts of the store, and people on the spectrum having to queue to pay for their purchases are a captive audience for a barrage of sensory assaults from which they cannot easily extricate themselves.
Tills are often near the refrigerator units, with their competing high level hums. Also near the tills are seating areas where people are sat talking, or kids screaming, or the tills are fairly near a cafe within the supermarket. Sometimes tills are near the external doors so there is traffic noise. Then the tills themselves are noisy with ring tones.
People on the autistic spectrum who become stressed while caught in the till queue are not given any special provision, nor are supermarkets particularly understanding of parents with autistic spectrum children who are affected by the barrage of noise, smells and visual stimuli.
Isn't it time supermarkets recognised disabilities like autism. They make enough money from us.
