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These types of headphones can support neurodiverse students by reducing the risk of sensory overload. For safety reasons, however, students aren鈥檛 usually allowed to use headphones in labs and may be challenged when wearing them. Implementation included a mechanism to subtly identify those students that had permission to use the headphones. This involved the use of small stickers on the standard name badge which identified the students who had permission.  

Initial indications from students are positive about the pilot, which is still in its first semester. For safety reasons, headphones are restricted to passive noise cancelling headphones, in order to allow essential sounds through, such as alarms, as opposed to white noise generating or standard headphones. Students use their own headphones, retaining their preference of in-ear, loops or over-ear headphones. To avoid the risk of contamination by chemicals upon leaving labs, decontamination processes are specified for each type of headphone. Prior to using their headphones, there鈥檚 a meeting with each student to ensure the headphones are appropriate. A formal note of the adjustment for the use of headphones in labs is required to be added to the student鈥檚 support plan before authorisation is given.

The process currently applies to undergraduate students in chemistry labs. The aspiration is that this approach would be extended to include postgraduate students and other research labs. Experiencing sensory overload can affect students more extensively beyond the specific overwhelming incident, potentially leading to withdrawal, avoidance and negative impacts on mental health, as well as increasing some specific physical risks around potential spillage of chemicals or damage to equipment. 

We've only just introduced it this current semester and we鈥檙e waiting for the students to give us formal feedback. Meeting with the students in the labs, they've all reported that it's a positive experience and has really enhanced their ability to go into the lab and feel more comfortable in that environment. We're trying to work with the students to make it as positive as we can.