Sensory Audit

---
name: sensory-audit
description: "Walk a space — home, office, commute, classroom — and find the sensory landmines quietly draining or overloading you, with fixes ranked by cost and impact. Use when someone says 'my office wrecks me and I don't know why', 'I'm overstimulated all the time', 'make my home autism/ADHD-friendly', or lives with SPD, autism, migraine, or misophonia. Produces a room-by-room sensory map, a ranked fix list (free → cheap → invest), and a portable kit for spaces you can't change. A self-help audit, not a clinical assessment."
---

# 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.

## Output Format

```
## Sensory map — [space]
| Sense | Landmine (constant/unpredictable) | Over or under? | Currently costing |

## Fix list (ranked)
Free today: … · Cheap: … · Invest: …
Add (input-seeking): [fidgets, pressure, movement — if relevant]

## Portable kit (for spaces you can't change)
[What to carry · how to use it low-key · the reset plan]

## Do these three today
[The highest impact-per-effort wins]
```

## Quality Checks

- [ ] All senses walked, including the easily-missed (proprioception, temperature,
      interoception), not just sight/sound
- [ ] The audit distinguishes over-stimulation from input-seeking, per this user
- [ ] Flicker and constant hums are specifically checked
- [ ] The free fixes are listed first and the today-list is genuinely doable today
- [ ] The portable kit works even where the user can't modify the space or disclose

## Anti-Patterns

- [ ] Do not assume a generic sensory profile — ask what runs hot vs seeks input;
      two ND people can need opposite things
- [ ] Do not lead with expensive gear — the highest-ROI fixes are usually free
      rearrangement and switching off the overhead light
- [ ] Do not frame sensory needs as fussiness or something to toughen up against
- [ ] Do not require disclosure or accommodation to help — the kit and the free
      fixes are the user's to deploy privately
- [ ] Do not diagnose — this audits an environment; SPD/autism/migraine assessment
      belongs with a clinician, and persistent overload that fixes don't touch
      deserves one

## Related

[[masking-budget]] — ambient sensory cost is a huge hidden line in the mask budget;
[[meltdown-map]] when overload tips into shutdown; [[attention-reset]] for the
digital-sensory layer.