When did walking through a shopping centre become an obstacle course?
Over the past decade, I've noticed that a simple trip to the shops seems to involve more and more dodging. People walk towards me while looking at their phones, stop without warning or change direction without checking who's around them. I first became conscious of it around the Pokémon Go craze in 2016 and I haven't stopped noticing it since.
As an autistic person and occupational therapist, I've started wondering whether distracted walking is an overlooked barrier to community access.
What Does Research Say About Distracted Walking?
Walking through a crowd is usually a cooperative activity. We watch where others are going, anticipate their movements and make small adjustments to avoid collisions.
A 2021 study published in Science Advances found that when some pedestrians were distracted by their phones, the normal organisation of pedestrian traffic was disrupted. Importantly, people who weren't using phones also experienced more difficulty navigating.
In other words, distracted walking doesn't just affect the person looking at the screen. It can create extra work for everyone else.
Australian research adds some context. Monash University researchers observed more than 4,000 pedestrians at Melbourne street locations between 2017 and 2019, finding that approximately 20% used portable devices while walking. This doesn't tell us whether distraction is increasing today, but it shows the behaviour is common enough to warrant attention.
Why Might This Be an Autism Accessibility Issue?
For some autistic people, shopping centres are already demanding environments. Bright lighting, overlapping conversations, crowded aisles and unexpected noise can all compete for attention.
But sensory input is only part of the picture.
A 2023 study exploring autistic adults' experiences of public spaces identified predictability, crowding and opportunities for recovery among the factors influencing accessibility.
Now add pedestrians who aren't watching where they're going.
Instead of simply following a familiar route, you may need to continuously track approaching people, predict whether they'll move, change direction and avoid collisions. That can mean more cognitive effort on top of an environment that already requires attention.
It's not difficult to imagine how repeated interruptions could contribute to frustration, fatigue or a desire to leave sooner. For someone who already limits shopping trips because of sensory demands, the extra unpredictability may become another reason to avoid busy public spaces.
To be clear, research hasn't yet established that distracted walking disproportionately affects autistic people. That's a question worth investigating, not a conclusion we can confidently draw.
Accessibility Means More Than Getting Through the Door
We often discuss autism-friendly shopping centres in terms of quieter hours, softer lighting and reduced music. These changes matter, but they don't address every source of difficulty.
Clear walking routes, less crowding around bottlenecks and greater awareness of other pedestrians may also help make public spaces easier to navigate.
And this isn't an argument against smartphones. Many autistic people use phones for communication, navigation and managing their daily lives.
It's about the responsibilities we share when occupying public space.
Accessibility isn't just whether someone can enter a shopping centre. It's also how much effort they have to expend to move through it.
At Kintsugi Allied Health, we provide autism-informed occupational therapy to help autistic adults navigate everyday challenges, manage sensory demands and build capacity for meaningful community participation.
We offer face-to-face occupational therapy in Newcastle, NSW, and telehealth services across Australia.
