Sensory Audit

Sensory Audit Skill

Sensory overload rarely announces itself — it's the fluorescent flicker you stopped noticing, the fridge hum, the tag on the shirt, the open-plan chatter — each below the threshold of complaint but adding up to an inexplicable end-of-day wreckage. For autistic, ADHD, SPD, migraine-prone, and misophonic people, the environment is doing invisible damage that "just push through" advice makes worse. This skill runs the audit a good OT would prompt: go sense by sense through a space, name the landmines, and fix them in cost order — most of the highest-impact fixes are free.

What This Skill Produces

• A sensory map of the space, by sense: sight (light, flicker, clutter, screens), sound (hums, echo, unpredictable noise), touch (textures, temperature, clothing), smell, and the often-missed ones — proprioception, interoception, vestibular
• A ranked fix list: free (move the desk, kill the overhead light) → cheap (earplugs, a lamp, felt pads) → invest (acoustic panels, noise-cancelling) — each tagged with the landmine it removes and rough impact
• A portable sensory kit for spaces you can't change (the office, the train, the family home): what to carry and how to use it without a scene
• A quick-win list: the three changes to make today

Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided):

• The space and how it's used (the desk you sit at 8 hours, the bedroom you can't sleep in, the commute that frays you)
• What the user already notices bothers them, and what they suspect but aren't sure of ("I'm wiped after work but the work is fine")
• Which senses run hot vs seek input — some people are overwhelmed by sound but crave deep pressure; sensory profiles are individual, so ask, don't assume
• Constraints: rented (can't drill), shared space, budget, a boss to negotiate with

Framework

1. Go sense by sense, deliberately. Overload hides in the senses we don't name. Walk sight → sound → touch → smell → temperature → movement/body. For each, ask what's constant, what's unpredictable (unpredictable is worse), and what the user has habituated to but is still paying for.
2. Distinguish over- from under-stimulation. Not all sensory need is "too much" — many ND people seek input (movement, pressure, chewing, noise) and suffer without it. The audit finds both the landmines to remove and the inputs to add (a fidget, a weighted lap pad, a walk).
3. Flicker and hum are the usual villains. Fluorescent/LED flicker and constant low hums (HVAC, fridges, monitors) are top offenders that people rarely suspect. Flag them specifically; the fix (warm lamp instead of overhead, white noise to mask unpredictable sound) is often free-to-cheap and high-impact.
4. Rank by cost, front-load the free. Most transformative fixes cost nothing — relocating the desk away from the walkway, switching off the overhead light, headphones. Put those first; reserve "invest" for the genuine bottlenecks.
5. Pack for the immovable spaces. For the office/train/relatives' house: a kit (loop earplugs, tinted glasses, a fidget, a scent you control, an exit-and-reset plan) plus, where relevant, a plainly-worded accommodation ask — but the kit works even when the ask isn't safe.