During 2025, ACCT began working on a small research and development project looking at swimming accessibility for autistic people in Sheffield. We are exploring the barriers that might prevent autistic people from being able to take part in swimming and to outline resources or other initiatives that might help to overcome those barriers.
ACCT has been delivering an autism-friendly family swimming session at Hillsborough Leisure Centre for several years. The project came about partly in response to feedback from families about the inaccessibility of general swimming sessions and the fact that our autism-friendly sessions are in such high demand. This told us that there was a real need for doing more to make swimming more accessible. We were also prompted into action by a call out from neurodivergent swimming teacher Kelly Deakin from Mighty Splash Swim School who we have been pleased to work with as a partner on this project.
Our sincere thanks to the Swimming Teachers Association CommUNITY STArters programme for providing a grant of Ā£1,000 towards this work and to Mighty Splash Swim School and Dr. Susy Ridout for their support in developing and delivering this project. Thanks also to the Sheffield Autism Partnership Network and Autism Partnership Board for sharing the survey more widely.
Over the Summer of 2025 we sought responses to a survey from autistic adults and parent-carers of autistic young people to try to better understand the accessibility barriers to swimming faced by autistic adults and young people in Sheffield, as well as finding possible helpful strategies, resources or suggestions for improved practices.
We were pleased to receive feedback from 54 respondents and are so grateful to all of them for taking the time to complete the survey and give such detailed and thoughtful responses. Here is a headline summary of responses.
We contacted swimming providers in and around Sheffield with a series of questions about existing facilities and accessibility for autistic people. Despite limited responses, we have been able to compile a summary of the main Sheffield leisure centres offering swimming, any inclusive sessions or lessons available (spoiler: very few), details of facility accessibility, and any links to more information.
We have taken suggestions and tips from our consultation and research which may be helpful for autistic people and parents of autistic children when going swimming.
We have also taken relevant survey feedback to produce a short guide for leisure centres on changes and adaptations that could make swimming sessions and lesson more accessible and welcoming to autistic people and people with similar additional needs.
At ACCT, we are keen to continue this work and are open to conversations with leisure centres, swim schools and other providers to help make swimming more autism-friendly.
Autistic Children and Carers Together (ACCT) 