The Cavendish Space Project is an ongoing, open experiment in designing environments that actually work for real people — especially neurodivergent and disabled bodies and minds. Rather than assuming space is neutral, this project explores what it looks like to make places where people can focus, rest, collaborate, reflect, and regulate without being punished for who they are.
This work is iterative and collaborative. It grows out of lived experience, community feedback, and continuous refinement in public — not behind closed doors. We publish early drafts, prototypes, and reflections so others can see what’s working, what’s not, and why. Default to open means you don’t have to wait for perfection to learn from this project or to help shape it.
Cavendish Space is not a finished product. It’s a practice — a way of understanding how context and people shape one another — and a set of tools for building conditions that support survival, creativity, and shared care.
Key Documents
Why Sheet
Glossary Page
Learning Space Page
Project Pages
Blog Posts
In Which We Answer Some Questions
Here are some questions posed to us for inclusion in an allied organization’s newsletter. We cover community art, direct giving,…
Cavendish Spaces For Multi-Sensory Learners and Those with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities
Cavendish learning spaces are based on flexibility, interaction, movement and the role of embodied responsive experiences. We reject the boundaries of traditional…
Map of Monotropic Experiences
This map highlights 20 common aspects of monotropic experience. How many do you experience?…
Cavendish Space, NeuroTribes, and Steve Silberman
The Life of Henry Cavendish DESPITE HIS ECCENTRIC COUTURE and the strange totem rising from his backyard, Henry Cavendish was not…
An Inclusive Conference Model for Our Times
I am presenting virtually at UDL Con about our Virtual First approach to the affordances of Discord as they relate…
The Inclusive Power of the Dimmer Switch
The “Alternative spaces” section of “Multiple Multisensory Rooms: Myth Busting the Magic” offers guidance on creating sensory spaces on any…
