There are 700,000 autistic people in the UK – that’s more than 1 in 100. If you include their families, autism is a part of daily life for 2.8 million people.

And for these autistic customers, a power cut can be exceptionally challenging - it can cause major upsets to the customer’s daily routine, resulting in emotional distress, and it can also impact those customers whose autism affects their sensory processing. And so it’s vital that when an autistic customer calls to report a power cut, or gets in contact with SSEN via social media, the Customer Contact Centre teams provide their advice and updates in a way that offers the most support and reassurance.

Gemma Wilson, Head of SSEN Distribution’s Customer Contact Centres, explains more:

“It’s really important that, whenever a customer gets in touch to tell us their power is off, we understand as much as possible about their individual situation and “see beyond” the power cut itself. 

“When we get a call from a young parent or an elderly customer to report a power cut, it’s something that most of us can relate to - but how can we get a better understanding of what our autistic customers may be feeling, how their senses can perhaps feel overloaded and the distress of having their routines being upset? We found the answer in the shape of the Autism Reality Experience bus.”

The bus is an immersive experience which has been designed to recreate, as far as possible, what it’s like to be autistic through a series of overwhelming sensory scenarios, with heightened feelings of noise, smell and distorted fields of vision. Following on from its visit to SSEN Distribution’s Perth Customer Contact Centre last month, it will be onsite at the Portsmouth centre later this week.

We’ve caught up with Gemma to hear more about the thinking behind the visit of the Autism Reality Experience bus, and also from two colleagues who took part in the session who describe what it was like,  and how it is helping the wider team think more about the way they interact with autistic customers – watch our video below to learn more:

To learn more about autism, visit the National Autistic Society and click here to read about  Neurodiversity Celebration Week, which is running all this week.