The Milones always wanted to go to Disneyland as a family but the fear their seven-year-old son, Mateo, who has autism, would have difficulty with airport travel held them back.
"We have been doing a lot of road trips historically for vacation time and such," said Sandy Milone, Mateo's mother. "Living with autism, everything is a little bit of an extra challenge."
A recent program for families living with autism, however, may have helped solve the challenge of air travel for the family of four from North Vancouver. The Canucks Autism Network, in partnership with Vancouver International Airport, recently hosted the YVR Accessibility: Autism Tour. The tour allowed individuals with the developmental disorder, including Mateo, to get a firsthand look at what airport travel was like in a controlled environment.
For many of the more than 11,000 children with autism in B.C., introducing something stressful and unpredictable, such as going to the airport, can be challenging.
"We need to sort of use a transition process with new things and new activities," Milone said about her son. "He sort of needs to see things first. He's a child that needs to understand and be exposed to things in chunks, if you will. And it's a gradual process for him and we have to do a lot of prep work with a lot of different, new ideas."
According to Milone, the accessibility tour attempted to make airport travel look structured and stimulating, not difficult.
"He actually went through it really well. He was very curious about what was going on and that's where it helps for us, to make sure to keep him curious instead of getting stressed and upset," she said. The 43 families that participated in the accessibility tour, who are all members of the network, were guided through the entire airport in "mock" fashion. This included checking-in, waiting in line at security, and even boarding the plane. YVR also provided a step-by-step toolkit for the travellers with autism to make the experience more active and routine.
"The toolkit consists of a step-by-step storybook that outlines the airport routine, an interactive checklist that allows travellers with autism
to check off each step as it is completed, an airport road map for families to follow on their journey, and helpful tips for travel. A comprehensive video series has also been created to help families prepare their child in advance of air travel," said CAN spokeswoman Lindsay Petrie, in an email response.
Petrie said that families living with autism can download the complimentary resource toolkits online at yvr.ca or pick one up at all pre-security YVR information counters.
Milone said that getting information out there, like the toolkit, was essential to make travelling easier for families living with autism. "The more a family is equipped with the tools to help successfully guide their child through processes such as these, the better it is for everybody," she said.
The network hopes the accessibility tour can occur annually, though Petrie said "next year's date has yet to be solidified."
Milone said that concerns the family had about how Mateo would handle airport travel have been resolved. "Thanks to this program and being able to, for lack of a better term, dress rehearse our way through the process of going to the airport, we now do have plans."
The family is currently planning a trip to Disneyland over spring break.
